Venki Ramakrishnan

Venki Ramakrishnan is an Indian-born British-American structural biologist who shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for studies of the ribosome’s structure and function.

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Thomas A. Steitz: An American molecular biologist who shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for determining ribosomal structure and function. Steitz shared the prize with Ramakrishnan and Ada Yonath for structural studies of ribosomes.
Ribosome: A cellular complex of ribosomal RNA and proteins that translates messenger RNA into proteins. This molecular machine was the central subject of Ramakrishnan’s structural research.
University of Baroda: A public university in Vadodara, India, where Ramakrishnan studied physics as an undergraduate. His early physics education there preceded his move into molecular biology.
2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry: The chemistry Nobel awarded to Venki Ramakrishnan, Thomas A. Steitz, and Ada Yonath for studies of the ribosome. The award recognized the structural discoveries that defined Ramakrishnan’s best-known work.
Ada Yonath: An Israeli crystallographer who shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for structural studies of the ribosome. Yonath’s ribosome crystallography formed the third part of the work recognized alongside Ramakrishnan’s.
30S ribosomal subunit: The smaller bacterial ribosomal subunit, which binds messenger RNA and helps decode its codons. Ramakrishnan determined its structure, illuminating how it reads genetic instructions.
Ohio University: A public university in Athens, Ohio, where Ramakrishnan earned a PhD in physics. His doctoral training in physics shaped the quantitative approach he brought to biology.
Antibiotic: A substance that kills bacteria or inhibits their growth, often by targeting bacterial processes. Ribosome structures clarified how many antibiotics disrupt bacterial protein synthesis.
Peter Moore: An American biochemist known for research on ribosomes and for collaborations in ribosome structure. Moore collaborated with Ramakrishnan on structural studies of the small ribosomal subunit.
Ribosomal RNA: RNA molecules that form the structural and catalytic core of ribosomes. Its architecture provides much of the small subunit’s framework for decoding messenger RNA.