Ada Yonath

Ada Yonath pioneered the study of ribosome structure using crystallography, work that earned her the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the Israel Prize. Her team made around 25,000 attempts before producing the first ribosome crystals in 1980, and in 2000 she determined the complete three-dimensional structures of both subunits of a bacterial ribosome. Her research revealed how several important antibiotics bind to bacterial ribosomes, informing work on antibiotic development and resistance. The Weizmann Institute of Science announced that she died on August 31 at the age of 87.