Nara Women's University Special Lecture (11th Dec. 2010)
We are pleased to announce the lecture of Dr Ada E. Yonath, a 2009 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, to be held on 11th of December at Nara Women's University. She is scheduled to come to Japan this December by the invitation of Osaka University of Pharmaceutical Sciences funded by Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) Award for Eminent Scientists.
Dr Ada E. Yonath, The Martin S. and Helen Kimmel Professor of Structural Biology in Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, has succeeded in crystallizing and analyzing the X-ray crystallographic structure of ribosome by the study initiated more than 20 years ago, overcoming many difficulties associated with the complexity of the particle that consists of a large number of proteins and ribosomal RNA molecules for synthesizing proteins in living cells (see for
details). She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009 along with Professors Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A. Steitz for their studies of the structure and function of the ribosome.
Apart from the scientific achievement, she is the fourth Nobel Laureate in Chemistry following Dorothy C. Hodgkin, who awarded the Prize in 1964 for her determination by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances. Is it a coincidence that these two awards separated by 45 years concern X-ray crystallography?
We believe that the lecture of Dr Yonath should inspire and encourage all who attend this fascinating event.