Trust-supported researcher wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry
8 October 2009
Dr Ramakrishnan, a structural biologist at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, shares the honour with Thomas A Steitz of Yale University and Ada E Yonath of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. They were awarded the prize for mapping the structure of the ribosome to the atomic level using X-ray crystallography. The 1999 publication of the first X-ray crystallography structures of a bacterial ribosome ended a decades-long challenge in the field of biochemistry.
The ribosome is a key factory in all cells, helping translate the information contained in DNA into the proteins that make up our cells and body. In addition, many of our current antibiotics work by stopping bacterial ribosomes from working, so further insight into the way ribosomes function could help us develop new medicines.
Dr Ramakrishnan was awarded a programme grant from the Wellcome Trust in 2007 to build on his earlier crystallography research. This has enabled his group to look more closely at particular components of the ribosome structure at different stages in its working process. He is also studying in detail the ribosomes of higher organisms in addition to those of bacteria.
Images of the bacterial ribosome structure also won him a Wellcome Image Award in 2008. See the winning image and hear Dr Ramakirshnan talk about his work.
Sir Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust, said, "We are delighted that Dr Ramakrishnan has been jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Ribosomes are crucial for translating the DNA 'code' into a living organism. Understanding how they work will help unlock many of the mysteries of life and, more pressingly, provide us with targets for essential new antibiotics."
"The work by Dr Ramakrishnan and his fellow Nobel Prize winners also highlights the importance of structural biology in answering some of our most important and fundamental questions."
Image: Dr Venki Ramakrishnan at the Wellcome Image Awards 2008. Credit: Wellcome Image Awards