UNITED KINGDOM: Cambridge scientist Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan expresses his delight at winning the Nobel Prize for Chemistry

Record ID: 644803

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: Cambridge scientist Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan expresses his delight at winning the Nobel Prize for Chemistry
  • Date: 8th October 2009
  • Summary: CAMBRIDGE, UNITED KINGDOM (OCTOBER 7, 2009) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR, VARIOUS OF MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL, LABORATORY OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY SIGN FOR LABORATORY VARIOUS OF PROFESSOR VENKATRAMAN RAMAKRISHNAN SPEAKING TO COLLEAGUE IN LAB (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROFESSOR VENKATRAMAN RAMAKRISHNAN SAYING: "I came in rather late to work because I had a flat tyre on my bicycle, halfway, and I had to walk my bicycle to work, and soon after I came here I got this call and initially I thought it was a prank call, but then when I spoke to some members of the Swedish Academy whom I know because they are in my field, I realised it was probably the real thing but I didn't quite believe it until they actually announced it publicly on their website." RAMAKRISHNAN SEEN THROUGH CAMERA VIEWFINDER (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROFESSOR VENKATRAMAN RAMAKRISHNAN SAYING: "It's really a reflection of a combined team effort. And I have to say that the ribosome is really such a broad field that so many other labs have made really major discoveries and major contributions to it, and in a way it's unfortunate it has to be limited to three people." RAMAKRISHNAN SMILING/ SPEAKING TO COLLEAGUE VARIOUS OF RAMAKRISHNAN AT COMPUTER
  • Embargoed: 23rd October 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: International Relations,Science / Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVAD5R6JPT8JAVR5UD06OG19NI8A
  • Story Text: A physicist at a top British university expresses his delight at winning the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, saying he was indebted to his colleagues for his success.
    Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, a senior research fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, has scooped the prize for his work to show what the DNA ribosome structure looks like and how it functions at an atomic level.
    Three scientists who produced atom-by-atom maps of the mysterious, life-giving ribosome won the Nobel chemistry prize on Wednesday (October 7) for a breakthrough that has allowed researchers to develop powerful new antibiotics.
    While DNA molecules contain the blueprint for life inside each cell of every organism, it is the ribosome that translates that information into life.
    Israeli Ada Yonath and Americans Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz shared the 10 million Swedish crown (1.4 million U.S. Dollar) prize for showing how the ribosome, a kind of protein factory, operates at the atomic level.
    "As ribosomes are crucial to life, they are also a major target for new antibiotics," the Nobel Committee for Chemistry at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement.
    The academy said many of today's antibiotics cure various diseases by blocking the function of bacterial ribosomes.
    Ramakrishnan, of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Britain, said he didn't believe at first he had won.
    "I came in rather late to work because I had a flat tyre on my bicycle, halfway, and I had to walk my bicycle to work, and soon after I came here I got this call and initially I thought it was a prank call, but then when I spoke to some members of the Swedish Academy whom I know because they are in my field, I realised it was probably the real thing, but I didn't quite believe it until they actually announced it publicly on their website."
    Ramakrishnan paid tribute to those who worked beside him.
    "It's really a reflection of a combined team effort. And I have to say that the ribosome is really such a broad field that so many other labs have made really major discoveries and major contributions to it, and in a way it's unfortunate it has to be limited to three people."
    A method known as X-ray crystallography was used to pinpoint each of the hundreds of thousands of atoms in a ribosome.
    The technique involves aiming X-rays at a crystal. The rays scatter when they hit atoms and by looking at how they spread out, scientists can determine where atoms are positioned.
    Yonath made the initial breakthrough at the end of the 1970s when she first tried the method on the ribosome -- a feat most considered impossible.
    Yonath started by taking a micro-organism found in the nearby Dead Sea and crystallising its ribosomes. She did this by freezing them at nearly minus 200 degrees Celsius.
    But it would take another 20 years before a full map could be made. During that time, two others joined the race: Yale University's Steitz and Indian-born Ramakrishnan of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Britain.
    In 1998, Steitz published the first crystal structure of a large part of a ribosome, something that looked like a dim photograph. The three scientists reached the finish line almost simultaneously in 2000, publishing crystal structures that were sharply enough defined to locate atoms.
    Scientists use ribosome models to develop antibiotics that can fight harmful bacteria, but many believe researchers have only just begun to tap into the potential these models offer.
    Prizes for the sciences and for peace were established in the will of 19th century dynamite tycoon Alfred Nobel and have been handed out since 1901. Sweden's central bank began awarding a prize for economics in 1969.
    Wednesday's award was the second protein-related prize in a row. Last year's chemistry Nobel went to researchers for the discovery of a glowing jellyfish protein that makes cells, tissues and even organs light up.
    Previous winners have included Marie Curie, who won the 1911 prize and is remembered for her contribution to the fight against cancer, and Frederick Sanger, who won the 1958 prize for his work on the structure of proteins, especially insulin.
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