Biological Systems: Open Access

ISSN - 2329-6577

44-7723-59-8358

Novel antibiotics against species-specific resistance, microbiome conservation and environmental preservation

4th International Conference on Integrative Biology

July 18-20, 2016 Berlin, Germany

Ada Yonath

Weizmann Institute, Israel

Keynote: Biol syst Open Access

Abstract :

The current global escalation in resistance to antibiotics is a serious threat, as it seems that the world is headed for a postantibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries that have been treatable for decades could become fatal again. Ribosomes, the universal cellular machines that translate the genetic code into proteins, are paralyzed by many clinically useful antibiotics. The structures of ribosomes from non-pathogenic bacteria, used as models for genuine pathogens, illuminated the antibiotics binding modes, inhibitory actions, synergism pathways, the differentiation between patients vs. pathogens and mechanisms leading to bacterial resistance. However, as species specific diversity was detected in susceptibility to infectious diseases and in developing specific resistance mechanisms, our structural studies have been extended to ribosomes from genuine pathogens. The high resolution structures of ribosomal particles from multi-resistant pathogens and from eukaryotic parasites with several antibiotics, highlighted subtle, albeit highly significant structural elements that can account partially or fully for species specificity and may be exploited for improving known antibiotics and for the design of novel compounds.

Biography :

Ada Yonath is focusing on protein biosynthesis and the antibiotics hampering it. In the seventies she established the first structural-biology laboratory in Israel. She is the Director of Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular Structure. During 1986-2004 she was the Head of Max-Planck Research Unit for Ribosome Structure in Hamburg. She is a Member of US National Academy of Sciences, Israel Academy, German Science Academy and Pontificia Accademia-delle-Scienze (Vatican). She holds honorary Doctorates from Oslo, NYU, Mount-Sinai, Oxford, Cambridge, Hamburg, Berlin-Technical, Patras, De-La-Salle, Xiamen, Lodz universities. Her awards include the Israel Prize, Louisa-Gross-Horwitz Prize, Linus-Pauling Gold Medal, Wolf-Prize, UNESCO/L’Oreal Award, Albert-Einstein World Award for Excellence and Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

Email: ada.yonath@weizmann.ac.il

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