In the morning of June 14, 2011, Professor Jiayang Li, Vice President of Chinese Academy of Sciences met Dr. Ada Yonath, Professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel and2009 Nobel Chemistry Prize laureate at the Institute of Biophysics, CAS. Mr. Amos Nadai, Ambassador of Israeli Embassy at Beijing, Dr. Huasheng Qiu, Deputy Director General of the Bureau of International Cooperation, CAS and Professor Ruiming Xu, Deputy Director General of IBP also joined the meeting. VP Li introduced CAS’ research and development and strategic planning in life sciences, graduate education and international cooperation. Dr. Ada Yonath was impressed by CAS’ rapid development and achievements. Ambassador Amos Nadai proudly pointed out that Israel, although a small country with limited resources, has become a superpower in science and technology. Both sides expressed sincere hope to further cooperation in more areas.

After the brief meeting with VP Li, Professor Yonath gave a lecture at IBP. During her presentation “From Basic Science to improved Antibiotic”, Professor Yonath introduced how she revealed the modes of action of over a dozen antibiotic families, how to develop new antibiotics using ribosome as target sites. She later discussed crystallization of ribosome. She used herself as a successful example to encourage young female students to pursue scientific career. Her talk, vivid and filled with wisdom, received waves of applauses from the audience. After the lecture, Professor Yonath visited the Chinese Academy of Sciences protein science core facility center at IBP.

Professor Yonath spent most of her scientific career working to unravel the structure of the ribosome, the cell's "protein factory". Her 20-year research efforts included pioneering technical advances such as cryo-bio-crystallography, which revolutionized structural biology worldwide. Her studies culminated in 2000 when she determined the structures of the two ribosomal subunits, an accomplishment ranked by the prestigious Science magazine as among the most important scientific developments of the year. In October 2009, Yonath was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry, along with American scientists Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz, for her work mapping the structure of ribosomes. She is only the fourth woman to win the Nobel chemistry prize and the first since 1964.

Fig 1.  Nobel Laureate Ada Yonath and CAS VP Jiayang Li

Fig 2. Ambassador Amos Nada is giving an address

Fig 2.　Group photo. Ambassador Amos Nada (left 1), Prof. Ada Yonath (left 2),

CAS VP Jiayang Li (middle), Prof. Ruiming Xu (right 2), Dr. Huasheng Qiu (right 1)