Preface: Science and Public Health:Professor Ada Yonath, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, 2009

Ribosomes are responsible for translating genetic code into protein and thus central components of cell life. Knowledge of their structure provided important potential applications in and understanding of the mode of action of antibiotics and resistance to antibiotics. The work of Professor Ada Yonath on the crystallography of ribosomes led to improvements in crystallization, crystallographic techniques, and x-ray diffraction detection procedures. In 2000 and 2001, Dr. Yonath published the three dimensional structures of the two subunits of bacterial ribosome. There are potential applications for this work, and hopefully science will use such tools to develop new methods to reduce the burden of many diseases. In 2009, Professor Ada Yonath was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her structural work on the ribosome.