A Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
A Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
The idea of supporting long term basic research like that at LMB does lead to breakthroughs, the ribosome is already starting to show its medical importance.
Dr Venki Ramakrishnan
Dr Venki Ramakrishnan has won the prestigious honour along with two other scientists for his research into the structure and function of ribosomes. Dr Ramakrishnan, of the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, shares the prize with Thomas A Steitz of Yale University and Ada E. Yonath of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.
Drs Ramakrishnan, Steitz and Yonath established what the ribosome looks like and how it functions at the atomic level. All three have used a method called X-ray crystallography to map the position for each and every one of the hundreds of thousands of atoms that make up the ribosome.
Ribosomes produce proteins, which in turn control the chemistry in all living organisms. As ribosomes are crucial to life, they are also a major target for new antibiotics. Dr Ramakrishnan's basic research on the arrangement of atoms in the ribosome has allowed his team not only to gain detailed knowledge of how it contributes to protein production but also to see directly how antibiotics bind to specific pockets in the ribosome structure.
This insight could help researchers to design antibiotics to treat people who are infected with a bacterium that has developed antibiotic resistance. Additionally, better targeting of the bacterial ribosome could help to minimise negative effects on human cells (thereby reducing the side effects of taking antibiotics).
Lord Rees of Ludlow, Master of Trinity College, said: "Venki's award will be enthusiastically welcomed by his colleagues and admirers in Cambridge. We in Trinity are honoured to have him as one of our Fellows - and delighted that we can now add him to the College's eminent roll-call of Nobellists."
Dr Ramakrishnan said: ''I have to say that I am deeply indebted to all of the brilliant associates, students and post docs who worked in my lab as science is a highly collaborative enterprise. The MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and the University of Utah supported this work and the collegiate atmosphere there made it all possible. The idea of supporting long term basic research like that at LMB does lead to breakthroughs, the ribosome is already starting to show its medical importance.''
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