Venkatraman Ramakrishnan Born 1952 (age 5859), Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India United Kingdom United States Biochemistry

and Biophysics

Residence Citizenship Fields

Institutions MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England.. Trinity College, University of Cambridge Alma mater Known for Baroda University, Ohio University, University of California, San Diego Structure and function of the ribosome; macromolecular crystallography

Notable awards Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine (2007), Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2009), Padma Vibhushan (2010) Venkatraman "Venki" Ramakrishnan (Tamil: ; b. 1952) is an Indian-born American structural biologist, who shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E. Yonath, "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome". [1] He currently works at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England.[2] Early life Ramakrishnan was born in Chidambaram in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu, India[3]to C. V. Ramakrishnan and Rajalakshmi. Both his parents were scientists and taught biochemistry at the Maharaj Sayajirao University in Baroda.[4] He moved to Baroda (Vadodara) in Gujarat state at the age of three, where he had his schooling at Convent of Jesus and Mary, except for spending 196061 in Adelaide, Australia. Following his Pre-Science at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, he did his undergraduate studies in the same university on a National Science Talent Scholarship, graduating with a B.Sc. in Physics in 1971. In a January 2010 lecture at the Indian Institute of Science, he revealed that he failed to get admitted at any of the Indian Institutes of Technology, or Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu.[5] Immediately after graduation he moved to the U.S.A., where he obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from Ohio University in 1976.[6][7] He then spent two years studying biology as a graduate student at the University of California, San Diego while making a transition from theoretical physics to biology. Career Ramakrishnan began work on ribosomes as a postdoctoral fellow with Peter Moore at Yale University.[2] After his post-doctoral fellowship, he initially could not find a faculty position even though he had applied to about 50 universities in the U.S.[5] He continued to work on ribosomes from 1983-95 as a staff scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory. In 1995 he moved to the University of Utah as a Professor of Biochemistry, and in 1999, he moved to his current position at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, where he had also been a sabbatical visitor during 1991-2. In 1999, Ramakrishnan's laboratory published a 5.5 Angstrom resolution structure of the 30S subunit. The following year, his laboratory determined the complete molecular structure of the 30S subunit of the ribosome and its complexes with several antibiotics. This was followed by studies that provided structural insights into the mechanism that ensures the fidelity of protein

biosynthesis. More recently, his laboratory has determined the atomic structure of the whole ribosome in complex with its tRNA and mRNA ligands. Ramakrishnan is also known for his past work on histone and chromatin structure. Honors Ramakrishnan is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a member of EMBO and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. He was awarded the 2007 Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine, the 2008 Heatley Medal of the British Biochemical Society and the 2009 Rolf-Sammet Professorship at the University of Frankfurt. In 2009, Ramakrishnan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Thomas A. Steitz and Ada Yonath.[9] He received India's second highest civilian honor, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2010. Personal life Ramakrishnan is married to Vera Rosenberry, an author and illustrator of children's books. He has a stepdaughter, Tanya Kapka, who is a doctor in Oregon, and a son, Raman Ramakrishnan, who is a cellist based in New York who plays with the Daedalus Quartet. ---------------------------------------------------------------Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: A profile LONDON: He may have migrated to the US long back, but Indian-American Venkatraman Ramakrishnan on Wednesday made a billion people back home proud by winning the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his pioneering work on ribosome, a cellular machine that makes proteins. 57-year-old Ramakrishnan, born in the temple town of Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu, is the seventh Indian or of Indian origin to win the prestigious award. Born in 1952, Ramakrishnan earned his B.Sc. in Physics (1971) from M S University in Baroda, Gujarat and later migrated to the US to continue his studies where he later got settled and attained US citizenship. He earned his Ph.D in Physics from Ohio University in the US and later worked as a graduate student at the University of California from 1976-78. During his stint at the varsity, Ramakrishnan conducted a research with Dr Mauricio Montal, a membrane biochemist and later designed his own 2-year transition from physics to biology. As a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University, he worked on a neutron-scattering map of the small ribosomal subunit of E Coli. He has been studying ribosome structure ever since. Ramakrishnan, now a senior scientist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge has authored several important papers in academic journals. In the August 26, 2000 issue of Nature, Ramakrishnan and his co-workers published the structure of the small ribosomal subunit of Thermus thermophilus, a heat-stable bacterium related to one found in the Yellowstone hot springs. With this 5.5 Angstrom-resolution structure, Ramakrishnan's group identified key portions of the RNA and, using previously determined structures, positioned seven of the subunit's proteins. In the September 21, 2000 issue of Nature, Ramakrishnan published two papers. In the first of these, he presented the 3 Angstrom structure of the 30S ribosomal subunit.

His second paper revealed the structures of the 30S subunit in complex with three antibiotics that target different regions of the subunit. In this paper, Ramakrishnan discussed the structural basis for the action of each of these drugs. After his postdoctoral fellowship, Ramakrishnan joined the staff of Brookhaven National Laboratory in ther US. There, he began his collaboration with Stephen White to clone the genes for several ribosomal proteins and determine their three-dimensional structures. He was also awarded a Guggenheim fellowship during his tenure there, and he used it to make the transition to X-ray crystallography. ---------------------------------------------------------------Profile: Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan Associated Press Posted online: Wed Oct 07 2009, 17:40 hrs Stockholm : (b. 1952 in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu) Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, known to most as "Venki," started out as a theoretical physicist. After graduate school, he designed his own 2-year transition from physics to biology. Then, as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr Peter Moore at Yale University, he worked on a neutronscattering map of the small ribosomal subunit of E. coli. He has been studying ribosome structure ever since. In the August 26, 2000 issue of Nature, Dr Ramakrishnan and his coworkers published the structure of the small ribosomal subunit of Thermus thermophilus, a heat-stable bacterium related to one found in the Yellowstone hot springs. With this 5.5 Angstrom-resolution structure, Dr Ramakrishnan's group identified key portions of the RNA and, using previously determined structures, positioned seven of the subunit's proteins. In the September 21, 2000 issue of Nature, Dr Ramakrishnan published two papers. In the first of these, he presents the 3 Angstrom structure of the 30S ribosomal subunit. This work will teach us more about how mRNA is read and is translated faithfully into proteins. His second paper reveals the structures of the 30S subunit in complex with three antibiotics that target different regions of the subunit. In this paper, Dr Ramakrishnan discusses the structural basis for the action of each of these drugs. Dr Ramakrishnan earned his B.Sc. in physics (1971) from Baroda University in India and his Ph.D. in physics (1976) from Ohio University. He moved into biology at the University of California, San Diego, where he took a year of classes, then conducted research with Dr Mauricio Montal, a membrane biochemist. After his postdoctoral fellowship with Dr Peter Moore, Dr Ramakrishnan joined the staff of Brookhaven National Laboratory. There, he began his ongoing collaboration with Dr Stephen White (now at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis) to clone the genes for several ribosomal proteins and determine their three-dimensional structures. He was also awarded a Guggenheim fellowship during his tenure there, and he used it to make the transition to X-ray crystallography. He moved to the University of Utah in 1995 to become a professor in the Department of Biochemistry. There, he initiated his studies on protein-RNA complexes and the entire 30S subunit. Last year, he moved to the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, where he is a Senior Scientist and Group Leader in the Structural Studies Division. Ramakrishnan's crystal structures of the ribosome's small subunit have been crucial for the

understanding of how the ribosome achieves its precision. He identified something that could be described as a molecular ruler. Using the ruler twice, the ribosome double-checks that everything is correct. ------------------------------------------------------------Its his first week back in India since he won this years Nobel Prize for Chemistry, but Venkatraman Ramakrishnan already sounds exasperated with the demands of a newfound fame. Its a distraction, he said, minutes after being mobbed by schoolchildren and science professors, autograph-seekers and television cameras at the University of Madras, where he inaugurated the A.L. Mudaliar Centre for Basic Science Development and interacted with students. Dr. Ramakrishnan, a molecular biophysicist based in the UK, is in Chennai with his father for the music season. Since he has lectured here a couple of times on the invitation of the Universitys Department of Crystallography, he offered to do so again during his current visit to the city. Last year, the lecture was held in [an auditorium] with a capacity for just 300 people, and half the seats were empty, said a bemused Dr. Ramakrishnan, facing a jam-packed audience of 3,000 at the universitys Centenary Auditorium. What has changed? I am still the same person doing the same science. Why are people so impressed when some academy in Sweden gives an award?, he asked. He pointed to the hundreds of fine scientists doing hard work in laboratories across the country, especially naming the late G.N. Ramachandran, a stalwart in molecular biophysics who was once a professor at the University of Madras. He was brilliant, but he never won a Nobel, so he got few honours in India, he said. I dont consider myself any smarter. He feels that Indian students and academicians must appreciate science for what it is, rather than worry about the prestige of a prize. Wrong question Asked how students could aim to emulate him and win a Nobel for India, Dr. Ramakrishnan answered emphatically: That is the wrong question to askYou cant go into science thinking of a Nobel Prize. You can only go into science because youre interested in it. He lectured students on the history of antibiotics and the science of exploring the ribosome essentially, a compact, simplified account of his life work. While the talk went over the heads of many of the younger students, several high-schoolers and college students were impressed. We learnt this in our undergraduate course, but he makes it so clear and simple, said a biotechnology student from Vel Tech. As a Physics student who moved into the field of Biology, Dr. Ramakrishnan is wry about winning the prize for chemistry. If I were to take an undergraduate chemistry exam, I would probably fail, he said. The ribosome does amazing chemistry, but Im not a chemistIve just learnt enough to work on my problem. Right now, he would just like to go back to working on his scientific problems in peace. Im hoping this will all die down in a few months, he said. I think sudden fame is a bad thing. People expect you to have words of wisdom on subjects outside your own expertise. He declined to answer too many questions or offer advice on the Indian scientific education system, saying he simply didnt know enough about it. Dr. Ramakrishnan also refused the responsibility of being a role model for Tamil Nadus students simply because he lived here till the age of three. Its not about where you were born, or where

you come from that makes you a good scientist. What you need are good teachers, co-students, facilities, he said. I honestly dont think my roots have much to do with it. Im sure this wont make me popular, but this is what I think. -------------------------------------------------------------------------A ribosome is the component of a biological cell that creates proteins from all amino acids and RNA representing the protein. One of the central tenets of biology, often referred to as the central dogma of molecular biology, is that DNA is used to make RNA, which is used to make protein. The DNA sequence in genes is copied into a messenger RNA (mRNA). Ribosomes then read the information in this RNA and use it to create proteins. This process is known as translation; the ribosome translates the genetic information from RNA into proteins. Ribosomes do this by binding to an mRNA and using it as a template for the correct sequence of amino acids in a particular protein. The amino acids are attached to transfer RNA (tRNA) molecules, which enter one part of the ribosome and bind to the messenger RNA sequence. The attached amino acids are then joined together by another part of the ribosome. The ribosome moves along the mRNA, "reading" its sequence and producing a chain of amino acids. Ribosomes are made from complexes of RNAs and proteins. Ribosomes are divided into two subunits. The smaller subunit binds to the mRNA, while the larger subunit binds to the tRNA and the amino acids. When a ribosome finishes reading a mRNA, these two subunits split apart. Ribosomes have been classified as ribozymes, because the ribosomal RNA seems to be most important for the peptidyl transferase activity that links amino acids together. Ribosomes from bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes (the three domains of life on Earth), have significantly different structures and RNA sequences. These differences in structure allow some antibiotics to kill bacteria by inhibiting their ribosomes, while leaving human ribosomes unaffected. The ribosomes in the mitochondria of eukaryotic cells resemble those in bacteria, reflecting the likely evolutionary origin of this organelle.[1] The word ribosome comes from ribonucleic acid and the Greek: soma (meaning body). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Story of a Nobel Laureate:dr.venkatraman Ramakrishnan When the news flashed stating that he was one of the Nobel Prize winners for Chemistry in the year,2009, the whole Tamil Nadu was elated, because he was a Tamilian by birth.His school teacher also felt so proud and he was nostalgic about him: During his school days, he was just above average, but he was very sincere and studious and these two qualities must have helped him to achieve such a great feet.He was none other than Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, the Nobel Laureate, passionately called as Venki by his colleagues.He was so humble and an unassuming personality. He was born at Chidambaram, in the year 1952, completed his schooling there and did his preuniversity course at the Annamalai University.Then he went to Baroda M.S University, to do his undergraduate and post-graduate courses. Then he flew to US and did his doctorate in the Ohio University. Currently he is engaged as a Senior Scientist in the Cambridge University, London. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan has been selected for conferring Nobel Prize along with two other scientists from US and Israel for their significant contribution and major breakthrough made in ribosomes.The value of the prize money that he would receive will be Rs 2.25 crores. All the three scientists were responsible for developing the structure and role of ribosomes.The significance of their research can be understood, if we know the actual size of a ribosome which is one millionth of a millimeter in size. While each human or bacteria cell has ribosomes, hitherto their role remained unknown.The credit goes to Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, who identified and described in detail about the actual role played by them.The ribosomes play a very useful role that helps the RNA and DNA interact with each other in a cell.Their significant theory on ribosome will also be helpful to make major breakthrough in the medical field.

Though Tamil Nadu or India may feel proud or even take credit just because Venki was born here, the actual credit of making an ordinary man into a Nobel Laureate should go to US, which provided him the requisite milieu, where Venki did his doctorate; where he carried on his advanced research in his specialized subject over a period of thirty years.It is equally a moot question whether he could have become a Nobel Laureate, if he remained in India. Perhaps he might have been on the verge of retirement planning his career after retirement.Certainly he could not have reached such great heights. Hats off to US! Venkatraman Ramakrishnan used to visit India particularly his native state of Tamil Nadu; he came to the Madras University in the year 2002 and 2005, for giving special lectures on his favorite subject. Apart from having a flair for research, Venki is more interested in listening to Carnatic music, especially in the Music Academy in Chennai, during the music season. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------Profile: Venkatraman Ramakrishnan Indian-American Nobel Laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, known to most as 'Venki', was born in 1952 in Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu. Buzz up! 57-year-old, Nobel laureate Ramakrishnan earned his B.Sc in Physics in 1971 from M S University in Baroda, Gujarat. He later migrated to the US to continue his studies where he later got settled and attained US citizenship. In 1976, Ramakrishnan earned his Ph D in Physics from Ohio University in the US. He moved into biology at the University of California, San Diego. He, then conducted research with Dr Mauricio Montal, a membrane biochemist. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University on a neutron-scattering map of the small ribosomal subunit of E Coli. He has been studying ribosome structure ever since. During his tenure, Ramakrishnan was also awarded a Guggenheim fellowship. In 1995, he moved to the University of Utah to become a professor in the Department of Biochemistry. He initiated his studies on protein-RNA complexes and the entire 30S subunit. Later, he moved to the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, where he is a Senior Scientist and Group Leader in the Structural Studies Division. In the Aug 26, 2000, Ramakrishnan and his co-workers published the structure of the small ribosomal subunit of Thermus thermophilus. Ramakrishnan's crystal structures of the ribosome's small subunit have been crucial for the understanding of how the ribosome achieves its precision. He identified something that could be described as a molecular ruler. Using the ruler twice, the ribosome double-checks that everything is correct. In 2009, Ramakrishnan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Thomas A. Steitz and Ada Yonath.

He has been named for India's second highest civilian honor, the Padma Vibhushan. Ramakrishnan is married to Vera Rosenberry, an author and illustrator of children's books. He has a stepdaughter, Tanya Kapka, who is a doctor in Oregon, and a son, Raman Ramakrishnan, who is a cellist based in New York who plays with the Daedalus Quartet. -----------------------------------------------------------------------Man who decoded life atom-by-atom TNN, Oct 8, 2009, 12.41pm IST As India celebrates another Nobel moment, science salutes the work of Venkatraman Ramakrishnan , who painstakingly , atom by atom, decoded the structure of ribosomes those tiny worksheds in each cell where life is built. Ribosomes are small granules , about 20 nanometers in width (1 nanometer = one billionth of a meter) found in all cells. Using the code carried by DNA molecules, they build proteins. There are tens of thousands of proteins in the body and they all have different forms and functions. They build and control life at the chemical level. Hemoglobin that transports oxygen is a protein. So are all antibodies that defend us against infections . And so are all hormones , like insulin, that conduct the finely tuned chemical orchestra of our body. Enzymes , crucial to breaking down food for the bodys use, are also proteins. One of the mysteries confronting scientists was how do proteins actually get built in the cells. The blueprint was known to be the double helix of the DNA. It was also known that messenger RNA molecules carry a copy or a template of a particular protein to the small granular ribosomes . But the exact structure of the ribosome, and how it converts a molecular code into a physical molecule of protein was only hazily known. VR unlocked the mystery using technique called X-ray crystallography. Think of it as a kind of 3-D photography using X-rays . In 2000, he built up a picture of a particular part of the ribosome. Later he built the whole picture of every atom in a ribosome , which contain thousands of atoms. This helped in revealing how exactly the template brought by the messenger RNA is used to construct a protein molecule. To understand the working of the ribosome is to understand one of the key processes of life. And, this has staggering implications for human healthcare and synthesing newer antibiotics. This knowledge can be turned around to disable the ribosomes of hostile bacteria that cause diseases in human body. Already many antibiotics are using this knowledge to kill invading bacteria. They target the ribosomes in the bacteria and stop its functioning. Result: the bacteria dies. The two other scientists who shared this years Chemistry Nobel, Thomas A. Steitz of US and Ada E. Yonath of Israel too had worked on the same lines, and their combined knowledge has been harnessed for practical use. VR's work also reveals what has become quite common today how modern science uses and builds upon earlier scientific discoveries. The tool that he used X-ray crystallography - was discovered back in early 20th century. This earned Max Von Laue a Nobel in 1914, and the father-son Bragg duo a joint Nobel in 1915. Several scientists used this method and won Nobels for working out structures of things like penicillin , vitamins and cholestrol , and diverse minerals. The discovery of the ribosome by Georges Palade won him the Nobel in 1958. Several other scientists have won Nobels for working out the DNA structure (Watson and Crick), RNA functions, among others.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------A little less nationalistic hero worship, please, writes Nobel winner Venkatraman Oct 16, 2009, 03.37pm IST Venkatraman Ramakrishnan I am distressed by the reaction to my comment about being deluged by emails from India, and realize I have inadvertently hurt people, for which I apologize. I hope people realize that I have no personal secretary and use my email mainly for work, so finding important communications became very difficult. I want to make it clear that I was delighted to hear from scientific colleagues and students whom I had met personally over the years in India and elsewhere, as well as close friends with whom I had lost touch. Unlike real celebrities like movie stars or people in sports, we scientists generally lead a quiet life, and are not psychologically equipped to handle publicity. So I found the barrage of emails from people whom I didn't know or whom I only knew slightly almost 40 years ago (nearly all from Indians) difficult to deal with. People have also taken offence at my comment about nationality being an accident of birth. However, they don't seem to notice the first part of the sentence: We are all human beings. Accident or not, I remain grateful to all the dedicated teachers I had throughout my years. Others have said I have disowned my roots. Since 2002, I have come almost every year to India. In these visits, I have spent time on institute campuses giving lectures or talking to colleagues and students about their work, and stayed in the campus guest house. I have not spent my time staying in fancy hotels and going sightseeing without them. The people I visited, e.g. at the ICGEB in Delhi, CCMB in Hyderabad, the University of Madras or the IISc in Bangalore can vouch for this. Finally, at a personal level, although I am westernized, many aspects of culture like a love for classical Indian music or South Indian or Gujarati food are simply a part of me. The best way to take pleasure in someone's achievement is to take an interest in their work and feel motivated to learn more about science. I remember reading about Gellman's work as an undergraduate in Baroda, and, when he won the Nobel prize, rushing upstairs to tell my parents. It did not matter to me whether he was Indian or not. In my case, I am lucky to have had a combination of education, opportunities and a great team of co-workers to have made a contribution to an important problem. I am not personally that important. If I hadn't existed, this work would still have been done. It is the work that is important, and that should be what excites people. Finally, there are many excellent scientists in India and elsewhere who will never win a Nobel prize. But their work is no less interesting and people should find out about what they do. My visits to India confirm that it has great potential and bright young students. A little less nationalistic hero worship will go a long way to fulfil that potential. ----------------------------------------------------------------Nobel laureate 'Venki' not good enough to buy phone in UK PTI, Feb 3, 2010, 05.29am IST LONDON: Nobel laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan was in for a surprise as he tried to buy an iPhone, putting down his first name as ``Venki''. British mobile phones major O2 did not find him ``credit-worthy'' enough to sell him the phone right away, leading to the scientist suspecting an element of racism behind the bizarre case. Ramakrishnan, an Indian-American currently researching here, was forced to pay a three-month deposit of 325 pounds at the O2 store in Cambridge in December last year, when most applicants

with good credit histories are not asked for a deposit. Every contract with a new customer is subject to an automatic credit check, using credit reference agencies such as Equifax and Experian. The rating is then used by companies to offer or decline credit. ``I am actually slightly suspicious that there is an element of racism at play here as well, since I can't think of a logical reason why I should be denied credit,'' Ramakrishnan said. He told a newspaper that he was outraged in principle that the company should require the deposit from someone so completely credit-worthy he had been given loans in excess of 200,000 pounds for his house in Cambridge. However, Sarah Taylor, an O2 spokeswoman, said: ``I was dismayed to hear that Prof Ramakrishnan would suggest that this decision was in any way related to race. ``Whilst we are honoured to have a distinguished Nobel prizewinner among our customers, I can assure you that every customer is treated exactly the same regardless of their race, creed or colour and in accordance with the law.'' She added that the first name ``Venki'' created problems, but not in the way the Nobel laureate suspected. ``I believe there was a discrepancy in the spelling or shortening of the customer's name that meant we did not have access to all the information available on his file. It is the customer's responsibility to make sure that these details match.'' Ramakrishnan, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2009, was asked to a pay a deposit when the credit check process did not return the expected score. He has since had an exchange of letters with the company, complaining against the treatment received. According to him, when making purchases in the past, he did not have problems even when using his first name as ``Venki'' or using just his initial. ``It was my impression that the programs are capable of distinguishing nicknames, since the postcode/address/last name and date of birth match. I've often just used my original initial,'' he said. Ramakrishnan is based at the Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. ---------------------------------------------Nobel prize winner Venki Ramakrishnan makes TN proud ET Bureau, Oct 7, 2009, 11.12pm IST US Scientist Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan has made his native State Tamil Nadu proud by winning the nobel prize for chemistry. He is the third scientist from the State to win the great Honor after C V Raman in 1930 and Dr S Chandrasekhar in 1983. Venki Ramakrishnan as he is called, studied Pre University course from Annamalai University in Chidambaram. In 1971, he obtained his B Sc in Physics from Baroda University. He did his Ph D in Physics from Ohio University in 1976. Between 1976-78, he was a graduate student in Biology from University of California. Born in India, Venki became a US Citizen. He has won several awards and honors. He has also co-authored several books in bio chemistry. He had worked at various universities. He was a post doctoral fellow in the department of chemistry in Yale University ( 1978-82). Later, he served at various versities including University of Utah and MRC Laboratory of

Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England. Since 2008, he has been a fellow at Trinity college, Cambridge. In an interview, Venki had said it was in high school that he really became interested in science and thought it would be a good career for him. " I have to confess that my parents were both scientists so I was exposed- so this may sound a bit like a farmer's son becoming a farmer, but, I don't think they particularly pushed me- if anything my father would have preferred that I become a medical doctor", he said in the interview. ----------------------------------------------------Relativity theory ET Bureau, Oct 15, 2009, 04.18am IST Nobel laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan has been astounded by the discovery that success unleashes an immense magnetic field, centripetal force, or a variety of other inexorable pulls that have been codified by scientists down the centuries. Perhaps the shift from physics to bio-chemistry and his current post in a biology laboratory has made him forget Newton's universal law of gravitation that begins with the statement that "every object in the universe attracts every other object with a force directed along the line of the centres..." A contemporary offshoot of that is the universal law of society, usually encapsulated in the cliche, "Success has many fathers, failure is an orphan." Surely a professor of his erudition, despite his lack of exposure to the rough-and-tumble world outside his hermetically-sealed lab, should have known that the world is full of people who know famous people whom others want to know. Some, in fact, make it their business to know them, as their livelihood depends on making the right connections. It's called networking. In that context, the few who have surfaced as "friends" or "associates" of the latest Indian who left India and gained a Nobel, are quite harmless. Some claim a connection through a university that Ramakrishnan says he never attended, others talk of his childhood in a temple town that he left at the age of three. Some of them could have been genuinely confused as the professor's name is not exactly an unusual one in southern India. Besides, none of these people have sought anything more from the revelation of their connection than a few seconds of airtime or a few centimetres of newsprint. Even his email box getting clogged with wellwishers should not have flummoxed a man who was surely weaned on theory of relativity. It's just that in India, relativity takes on a somewhat different connotation. It does, however, also bend the time-space continuum but in ways Einstein would never have conjectured: relatives (and friends) emerge from blackholes at the speed of light. ----------------------------------------------------------Indian research institutes need another 20 yrs to bloom: V Ramakrishnan Gouri Agthey Athale, ET Bureau, Dec 19, 2010, 02.11am IST Tags: Venkatraman Ramakrishnan|nobel prize Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, who shared the Nobel prize for Chemistry in 2009, is currently on a visit to India. He spoke to Gaurie Agthey Athale in Pune. Excerpts: Is there a lack of research in the curricula of Indian universities, leading to people of Indian origin doing well when they go abroad? There is a lot of excitement and exciting things happening in Indian science. The government is funding science in a big way and setting up new institutes. Besides, I am the wrong person to ask questions about Indian curriculum or systems because I left India at the age of 19.

But where are the results? There isn't a single Nobel working in the country... There are no results today because there is a lot of nurturing needed by the Indian scientific community. It takes twenty years for sustainable results. One generation has to do well... then there is need for continuity. Institutes have to become sustainable. So, give it at least another twenty years. Institutes and local scientific community complain about lack of funding... The government has begun to invest in science after 1990, after the Indian economy was opened up. Before this, the investments were lower. Give it some timea generation maybe. The sustainability and continuity of research institutes is mandatory because there may be a good person at the head of an institute and he retires. Research institutes need continuity and sustainability. There are some remarkably fine traditional institutes in India such as the Tata Fundamental Research Institute, the Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology and National Centre for Biological Sciences. They have been working for a long time and doing good work. There is a misperception about their contribution and there are too few such institutes. So, what according to you is the biggest challenge faced by Indian science today? To attract good faculty that work overseas. That is the main problemto get young scientists to come here and fill faculty positions, giving them the freedom to work. I cannot compare the Indian system to the West since I left at 19 and have not been part of the system here. But yes, salaries are much better than they were 50 years ago, the infrastructure facilities are also a lot better now. A lot of young people are returning. I know of one young structural biologist who is coming back (from the UK's Cambridge University), to ISSER, Pune. -----------------------------------------------Science bonds Nobel winner Venky's family Chidanand Rajghatta, TNN, Oct 9, 2009, 09.51am IST SEATTLE: Aside the obligatory stories of initial disbelief on being informed that he had won the Nobel Prize ("Is this a crank call? Good Swedish accent you have there!"), there was the family drama or lack of it when the news sank in. Venkatraman "Venky" Ramakrishnan ("Ambi" to family) figured it was too early to call his father and sister in Seattle, where it was 2 a.m. local time, to tell them the good news. His daughter Tanya, a physician in Portland, Oregon, was in the same time zone, and his son Raman, a professional cellist, was traveling on the road and incommunicado. Why, he could not even tell his wife Vera, because she was out walking in their Cambridge neighborhood and she did not have a cell phone. Yeah, that is typical of the family. The Nobel winner does not own a car and rides a bicycle to work. But back in Seattle, Prof C.V.Ramakrishnan's phone started ringing off the hook at 2 a.m. because son Ambi had listed his father's home as his U.S address. A CBS reporter was the first to call. "Are you sure it's Venky who has won?" the Prof, himself a distinguished academic (he founded the bio-chem department at Baroda's M.S.University in 1955), recalls asking. "There are so many Ramakrishnans even in the U.S." He asked them to call Lalitha, Venky's sister, a microbiologist at the University of Washington, who lives just down the street from him in Seattle's university area. She asked the reporter who else had won, even as her husband Mark Troll, a chemist, booted up the computer to check the

headlines. Told the names of the American and Israeli co-winners, she sighed, "I guess it's true. They are his colleagues and rivals in the same field." By the time Venky phoned at dawn, they were ahead of the curve. Friends, colleagues, peers, had already been calling from all over the world. The rest of the day passed in a whirl. When your correspondent tootled down to join the family for dinner, the table was overflowing with half-dozen desserts three that Prof CVR himself had made (mango ice cream, pear ice cream, and shrikand), plus guests bringing in kheer, gulab jamun, and rasmalai. -----------------------------------------------------------MY FATHER The Tamil Nadu-born molecular-biologist Venkatraman Ramakrishnan who received this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the ribosome recently expressed his enthusiasm about Daedalus Quartet, the ensemble that his son plays with in America. Raman reveals how his father was quite the budding musician himself. What does you father say about your music? I think he's happy that I'm able to support myself. As I mentioned before, he and my mom have always encouraged me to choose a career I felt passionate about. What's his advice to you? Just simple truths: get plenty of sleep, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. I can't say I always follow those rules. Has he had musical ambitions? He took violin lessons for a short time, when I was about six years old. I would love to see him learn the piano because then he could play with my mom, who has been learning the cello for the past few years. What's it like being known as a Nobel Laureate's son? I'm very happy that his hard work has been acknowledged, but it hasn't affected my own life much. My dad has promised to use some of his prize money to buy a new cello for me, so I look forward to that (and I'm very grateful to him). I am in need of a better instrument. How do you react to Indians wanting to embrace any figure of Indian origin when they attain international acclaim, be it Zubin Mehta or Venkatraman Ramakrishnan? It is natural for Indians to be proud when someone from their midst attains international acclaim. And it has been exciting for my dad to be in the spotlight. I hope that the award inspires young Indians to read about his work, and, ultimately, to discover a passion in themselves for a project of their own. Did your father discuss his work on the ribosome at home? Yes, he thought about the ribosome constantly, and often discussed it. I was very excited when his lab solved the structure of the small subunit almost a decade ago, and I suspected that the Nobel would eventually be awarded for ribosome structure. But there were many contenders for the prize, and he was lucky to be one of the winners. Also is it just a ridiculous stereotype or would scientists actually admit to being disconnected and absent-minded? My dad and I would both admit to being absent-minded sometimes. For him, I'm sure it comes from thinking intensely about his work, which often lends a Beckett-like quality to his conversations. But he is not disconnected at all. He has always been interested in my life and my sister's life, and has given us both excellent career advice along the way. India has its own strong tradition

of classical music, so it wouldn't be right to say that Sangat is filling a void. However, I hope that Sangat has brought a new kind of enjoyment to Indians by exposing them to the sounds of Western classical chamber music. The daedalus string quartet comprising Raman Ramakrishnan on cello, Jessica Thompson on viola, Min-Young Kim and Kyu-Young Kim on violin was formed in 2000. The Daedalus Quartet's debut CD, works of Ravel, Sibelius, and Stravinsky, was released in August 2006 by Bridge Records ------------------------------------------------------Venkatraman's teacher happy over ward's Nobel PTI, Oct 7, 2009, 09.09pm IST CHENNAI: "I am extremely happy to hear that my student Venkatraman Ramakrishnan has won the Nobel prize for Chemistry', Prof M S Govindarajan, who taught him Physics at pre-university level at Annamalai University in Chidambaram where he was born, said on Wednesday. "I am very happy to hear the news. I am proud of him", Govindarajan, a professor in Annamalai University told PTI from Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu's Cuddalore district. Govindarajan taught physics to Ramakrishnan in 1968-69. "He (Venkataraman) was one of the few top among the 300 students", he said. Govindarajan's daughter, Dr G Radhika, an associate Professor at Annamalai University and Ramakrishnan's classmate in PUC, said "I am very happy that I happened to be his classmate. I am sorry that I cannot recollect any thing more as forty years have passed', she told PTI. Ramakrishnan, a senior scientist at MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology at Cambridge, today shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2009, along with two others. ---------------------------------------------------------Scientists are not cricket or movie stars: Venkatraman Ramakrishnan Mobbed everywhere for photographs and autographs on the first two days of the 98th Indian Science Congress, Nobel laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan asked Indians not to confuse scientists with movie and cricket stars. Inaugurating the Children's Science Congress-2011 at SRM University on Tuesday, Mr. Ramakrishnan said science had no place for rituals and ceremonies, and that Indians were confusing scientists with stars. Scientists are not movie stars or politicians who will feel insulted if they are not showered with accolades. Scientists are not interested in accolades, he said. When Mr. Ramakrishnan escorted Nobel laureate Thomas Steitz who arrived on his invitation to the Pride of India exhibition at the Science Congress Mr. Ramakrishnan said they were mobbed and that the tour lasted 15 minutes. I could not explain to him the advances in Indian science. We are not cricket or movie stars, Mr. Ramakrishnan said. Similarly, at every meeting, he said he only spoke for 15 minutes and that the rest was pure ceremony.

Science is curiosity, testing and experimenting, he said, adding that as a scientist, he was accumulating human knowledge and not playing cricket for India. Science is an international enterprise where discoveries in one part of the world are useful in other parts. The traffic should be both ways, and at present the flow from the West to India is more, he noted. Concluding his remarks, Mr. Ramakrishnan said, I've been honest with you. You are free to disagree. That's science. ---------------------------------------------------------------Venkatraman Ramakrishnan won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the structure and function of the ribosome. In an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7s Walk the Talk, Ramakrishnan speaks of his research, on the value of scientific interdisciplinarity, and of his ongoing attempt to learn Spanish Shekhar Gupta: I am at Bangalores Indian Institute of Science and my guest this week is Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Nobel Laureate for Chemistry, also a physicist and a biologist. Welcome to Walk the Talk. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: Though I have to say, no physicist would consider me a physicist today. Shekhar Gupta: Thats the problem with the business of science now, you dont know whos who. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: Thats true. As Balram, director of Indian Institute of Science said in an editorial, the boundaries between the sciences are becoming more fluid. Shekhar Gupta: So boundaries are breaking up? Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: Techniques from one discipline are being routinely applied to other disciplines and I have to say that biology is at the receiving end of a lot of this. Shekhar Gupta: You should know how one thing leads to another and how people find their calling you are the father of a brilliant musician and even the father-in-law of one. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: My son was a physics undergrad but his love was always the cello. I think he treated physics as hobby. Hes a happy musician, I hope. Shekhar Gupta: Science is a good beginning. Im happy to say that about myself Im from a generation of musicians forced to study science. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: My feeling is that even if you are not a scientist you really should have a certain minimum education in science because we live in a highly technical society. How do you know that the right decisions are being made by your government or people around you? We talk about pollution or global warming. How can you even judge if these things are meaningful or not? If you have a fundamental background in science even at the high school level, it does help you come to grips with the problem instead of taking someones word for it. Shekhar Gupta: By the same logic, you also need a background in liberal arts and humanities. Because a lot of kids in India go to IIT straight from school and spend a lifetime in science. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: I grew up in the Indian system and I unfortunately had to choose between humanities and science in high school. Im making up for it. Im learning Spanish Ive to take an exam in January.

Shekhar Gupta: I took my last exam 33 years ago. My regular nightmare around May is that I come prepared for a botany paper and its a zoology paper! Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: When I got this Nobel Prize, they had a student from the school where I study Spanish interview me for their paper. And they said, Hills Road 6 form student wins Nobel Prize. Shekhar Gupta: Tell us about your journey in science you started off as a physicist. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: I originally thought I might go to medical school. And I got admitted to the Baroda Medical College , but I also appeared for the National Science Talent exam. That was at the encouragement of my mother. I made a deal with my father that if I got the scholarship, then you shouldnt force me to do anything. He wanted me to be a doctor. I got the scholarship, and while he was away, I transferred my admission from medical college to study physics. The clerk thought Id made a mistake, and I actually meant the other way round. Shekhar Gupta: For our generation, the first choice was medicine. Next was engineering. If you failed in both, you went for the IAS. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: One thing that motivated me was that a group of professors, some of whom had come back from the US, had completely modernised the curriculum. 30 years later, my son studied basically the same curriculum at Harvard. So that was a motivation for me to go into physics. Somewhere along the line I realised that I was not going to be a good physicist. I would just be doing some boring calculations and not have any real insight. I believe physics is on a difficult plane, because to make truly fundamental breakthroughs in physics is very hard now. At the same time, molecular biology was blossoming. It seemed every week there was an important discovery being made. Shekhar Gupta: You talked about reading the Scientific American and seeing breakthroughs all the time... Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: When I read the Scientific American, it was often the biology breakthroughs that were leaping out of the magazine. I thought lots of physicists, Francis Crick for one, have made the transition from physics to biology. And so I thought, why not? Shekhar Gupta: Francis Crick made the transition very much to the area where you moved. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: He started off as a structural biologist, then became a very general molecular biologist and later a neurobiologist. But he was really a genius, a class by himself. Shekhar Gupta: So are you, but you dont have to say that. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: I mean that very seriously. I think people mistake the Nobel as a prize for being exceptionally intelligent. I think thats a false impression people have. Most Nobel laureates are people who have done important work but they are not themselves that special. They are people whove had the luck to stumble on to something. Some of them have had the combination of persistence and research. But people like Crick really were in a different class. Shekhar Gupta: Was it like an a-ha moment when you decided to make the switch? Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: I think my a-ha moment came when I was writing my thesis, actually slightly before. And I realised what next? I just couldnt see continuing on as a physicist. And then rather doing a post-doc in biology, I decided to go to graduate school and start essentially all over again with the option of getting a second Ph.D. I even took undergraduate courses in biology. Here I was, with a Ph.D. in physics doing undergraduate courses.

Shekhar Gupta: There is performance pressure in academia as well. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: I think, in America , there is the idea of starting all over again having second, or even third chances at life. Shekhar Gupta: You actually took undergrad courses? Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: I was registered as a graduate student but since I didnt know any basic biochemistry or genetics, I had to start at a lower level. So in the first year, I actually took undergraduate courses. And once Id acquired a broad background I did a year in research in biology but then I realised I didnt actually need a second Ph.D. I decided to do a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale with Peter Moore, whos a very famous ribosome scientist, which is how I got into my field in 1978. Shekhar Gupta: One of the wonderful things about doing this show is that there is an opportunity to be educated by the finest teachers in the world. Weve had the privilege to have Dr Baltimore to tell us be patient to try and understand biotechnology, weve had Elizabeth Blackburn tell us about aging. So from aging to DNA, to now RNA, we learn about this magical trinity. Tell us about the linkages and connections, the breakthroughs and why we need to be patient. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: Let me start off with the ribosome and what it is. If you think of DNA, you can think of it as an archive of information. Ribosome is the machine that takes the information in our genes and makes proteins, using the instructions in our genes. The analogy people draw is that if we have a tape with music stored on it. The tape consists of instructions on how to reproduce that music it can be stored in different ways, it can be stored digitally or in analog ways to clear a set of instructions. But to convert that set of instructions, you need a tape like a tape recorder or a machine player. You can think of genes as containing information to make proteins, and what the ribosome does is take that information. You can think of DNA as an archival storage form, and RNA as a working copy. It takes the working copy, in the form of what is called messenger RNA, because it contains the genetic message. Shekhar Gupta: Why is that important? Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: Its important because everything in this cell is done by proteins. We are, of course, discovering more functions for RNA. It is still true that the bulk of the functions is carried out by proteins. Oxygen in your blood is carried by a protein, light in your eye is sensed by a protein. When you have an infection, the antibodies you make are proteins. Your skin is basically collagen, which is protein. Shekhar Gupta: Antibiotics have to go through proteins... Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: Antibiotics can work in many different ways. One other way of looking at the ribosomes importance is that virtually everything in the cell was made by the ribosome, or by enzymes, which themselves are made by the ribosome. Its really responsible for the way a cell is constructed, and thats true for all life forms, including viruses. Thats why it is of fundamental importance. The question you asked about antibiotics because a ribosome is so ancient, the ribosome of human and bacteria are slightly different. About half of known antibiotics work by targeting the bacterial ribosome, while not binding so well to the human ribosome. When they bind to the bacterial ribosome, they do so at critical sites in the bacterial ribosome and they stop it from working. If a bacteria cannot make protein, it dies, just like if we werent able to make protein, we would die too. Its the basis of antibiotic function. The ribosome was discovered in the 50s, and it has been known for a very long time. But to

understand how it works, you needed to know its detailed structure. Because if you dont know how a machine works in detail, such as a car engine, then you wouldnt really understand how motor works. We needed a high-resolution structure, and thats what the three awardees of the Nobel Prize did this year which was to determine the atomic structure of the ribosome. We each did one of the sub-units, and then eventually of the entire ribosome. Shekhar Gupta: Between the three of you, you did about thirty models. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: Weve solved many structures, but the real key was the atomic structures of the large and small sub-units of the ribosome. All ribosomes consist of two subunits, which sort of move, relative to each other during the process. We did atomic structures of the sub-units in the year 2000, and that really paved the way for everything that came later. Shekhar Gupta: What is your common connection with antibiotics the three of you? How much of it was collaboration, and how much was it competition? Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: Once you got the atomic structure, then it was relatively easy to bind the ribosome with these antibiotics and re-determine the structure. Once you have the basic structure, to get the antibiotic structure is quite routine. Once the three of us had our structures of the ribosome components, then we quickly determined the structures with antibiotics. That enabled us, for the first time in 50 years, since tetracycline had been discovered... Shekhar Gupta: It has been available over the counter in India for over 50 years people pop it like cough syrup... Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: Its a bad practice, which if you want, I can discuss later. It was possible to determine how these antibiotics bound, and that allowed us to understand how antibiotics blocked ribosome function. It also allows people now how to design better antibiotics, you can see how natural antibiotic is binding in a particular site. You might say, well, we could fill up this vacant space around this antibiotic binding region and say, well, can we design a better molecule? In fact, Thomas Steitz started a company, for which Im also a consultant. Im on their scientific advisory board. And they are actually designing new antibiotics, based on these ribosome structures Shekhar Gupta: Lets go back to what you said just now. Why is it so bad to pop an antibiotic over the counter? We know it can make a bacteria more resistant. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: Just because you have a fever or a running nose doesnt mean that you have a bacterial infection. Many infections are viral. If you have a flu, you have a viral infection. So these antibiotics will be of no use, when you have a viral infection like a flu. At the first sign of something like that, and in India its especially bad, you ask for tetracycline and they give it to you. The way they do it is that they have some phony doctor on their books who will sign up at some point in time. This leads to overuse of antibiotics, and this causes resistance, where the bacteria becomes resistant to antibiotics. And also, they dont follow the whole course as soon as they feel better, they stop taking the antibiotic which also leads to resistance. I know from working in this company how difficult it is to make a new drug it takes over a billion dollars. If you make existing antibiotics useless, youre certainly destroying an extremely valuable commodity. I think people should be very careful. Shekhar Gupta: All you great scientists who have been focused on molecular biology, where has it taken us in our understanding of big diseases such as cancer and HIV, the big challenges? Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: Im not an expert on either cancer or HIV. But if you look at the progress in the treatment of cancer, you realise that life expectancy and the prognosis of cancer is dramatically different from 10 years ago. (Some lines of treatment) are a complete offshoot of

molecular biology, which depends on a technology which was actually developed in my institute. It involves making an antibody that very specifically targets a protein on B-cells, and it ends up specifically killing these cells that are responsible for the lymphoma. That kind of technology will only be available with advances in molecular biology. The time from a basic discovery to an application can be decades, sometimes centuries. Newton discovered the laws of mechanics, but we only had rocketry which used those laws in the 20 th century. Shekhar Gupta: Ive been reading about your irritation, if I may say so, with India embracing you and declaring your Nobel as an Indian triumph. I liked your comment, when you said its not like cricket and our man winning. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: First of all, science is a highly international enterprise. For instance, my lab has a person from Malaysia , two people from China , one from Germany , one was a Canadian, one American... Thats the make-up of any lab thats at the forefront of things. Science is international. For example, a discovery made in country X can be quickly exploited in country Y. Information flows quickly, especially in the age of the Internet. Getting back to this whole thing about claiming somebody, I have made it very clear that I grew up in India and Im very grateful, especially to my teachers. But Im fundamentally not a nationalist, I have to be honest about that. Because nationalism leads to jingoism and all sorts of problems. Shekhar Gupta: Last 30 years have seen decline of nationalism in developed societies. There is more passion supporting your club than supporting your country. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: Thats always been true of science. Scientists have been the least nationalistic of people they have always been global in their outlook. Theyve been willing to move, even in the 19th century. On the other hand, if Indians feel proud that someone who grew up in India , who got their B.Sc in India has gone on and done well I think thats perfectly understandable. Shekhar Gupta: And your other comment, that if India has to achieve more, it has to build genuine meritocracy in its institutions. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: It was a reporter from your newspaper who asked me, why is it that Indians who go to the US do so well, and why arent we doing so well? I think part of the problem is money. America is a very rich country it has far more resources and thats part of the thing. But America attracts people from all over the world, and these people go on to top positions. They become presidents, CEOs, they are heads of departments, hospitals, they become Nobel laureates. I think its because in America , people dont care what your background is. Whats your family background, which country are you from? In some cases, even where were you educated? I would be lying if I said it didnt matter if you were from Harvard or some unknown state school. But it plays less of a role than in other countries. Primary thing they want to know is what have you done recently and what can you do for us? And thats a very healthy attitude, and that meritocratic attitude is responsible for Americas role as much as anything else. Shekhar Gupta: In India , I say in some of my cynical moments, that it is important for your parents to have done very well. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: If you get beyond that and become a true meritocracy, it would be a step ahead. Shekhar Gupta: We have a minister who is trying to set up new great institutions, scale up institutions. Do you have any advice for him? Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: I cant give any advice, but Ill tell you one promising thing Ive

seen. New institutes are being opened up that combine undergraduate education with research and they are more widespread. Shekhar Gupta: There is massive expansion of higher education, especially in science. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: Thats a very good sign. Thats a sign that research and science education is being taken seriously. The hope is that these kinds of institutions will be more insulated from local politics that often plagues universities. Thats a good sign. Shekhar Gupta: Even in IIT, JNU, the finest schools in India will not allow the mobility across disciplines that youve enjoyed. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: People are in favour of creating more fluidity between institutions, people are in favour of change. When I went to the US in 1971, virtually no one who could stay on came back to India . Whereas now, there are scientists choosing to come back. And theyll come back with their own ideas of how things should be. Shekhar Gupta: In the scientific community, this is widely seen as the decade of biology. What will the next decade be like? Will biology continue to rule for another couple of decades? Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: If you look at the early half of the 20th century, that was probably physics. And then, chemistry and biology. I think biology is going to be very exciting for the next few decades to come. For example, we still dont know anything about the organisation of the brain. If I ask you, how do you remember a telephone number, it leads to all sorts of complex questions. Theres all this business of generating gnomic data, but we still dont know how to use the data. Shekhar Gupta: I read somewhere you said the great excitement comes from solving a mystery. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: Thats what it comes down to in its essence, that were basically puzzle solvers. But the puzzle has to be important, it cant be some trivial thing. It has to be some deep problem that interests you. ----------------------------------------------------------He might have left India when he was at the age of 19, but at the age of 57, Indian-American Venkatraman Ramakrishnan made a billion people back home proud on Wednesday by winning the Nobel Prize for Chemistry,along with other two scientists Thomas A. Steitz and Ada Yonath.,for his great work on ribosome,which is a cellular machine that makes proteins. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan is a structural biologist at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology of the Medical Research Council located in Cambridge, England and he is a fellow of Trinity College,Cambridge Early Life Born in the temple town of Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu in 1952 Completed Pre university studies in Annamalai University Ramakrishnan earned his B.Sc. in Physics (1971) from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in Gujarat 1976 - Ph.D Physics in Ohio University

Spent a year taking classes in biology at the University of California, San Diego while transitioning from theoretical physics to biology. During his stint at the varsity, Ramakrishnan conducted a research with Dr Mauricio Montal, a membrane biochemist and later designed his own 2-year transition from physics to biology. As a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University, he worked on a neutron-scattering map of the small ribosomal subunit of E Coli. He has been studying ribosome structure ever since. He is the seventh Indian or of Indian origin to win the prestigious award. Research Activities He has published more than 95 research papers, and he first started publishingin 1977.In the August 26, 2000 issue of Nature, Ramakrishnan along with his his co-workers, published the structure of the small ribosomal subunit of Thermus thermophilus, a heat-stable bacterium related to one found in the Yellowstone hot springs He also published three papers about his ribosome research in the August 26, 1999, and September 21, 2000, issues of the journal Nature. This was followed by studies that provided structural insights into the mechanism that ensures the fidelity of protein biosynthesis. More recently, his laboratory has determined the atomic structure of the whole ribosome in complex with its tRNA and mRNA ligands. Ramakrishnan is also known for his past work on histone and chromatin structure.With this 5.5 Angstrom-resolution structure, Ramakrishnan's group identified key portions of the RNA and, using previously determined structures, positioned seven of the subunit's proteins Ramakrishnan is well known for his work on the determination of the three-dimensional structure of the small ribosomal subunit and its complexes with substrates and antibiotics, which has shed light on the mechanism that ensures the fidelity of protein synthesis, and for his work on the structures of chromatin-related proteins. Awards Ramakrishnan was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with 2 other scientists,Thomas A. Steitz and Ada Yonath. He will be awarded the Nobel Prize and along with that one-third of the total prize money of 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.4 million), in a ceremony whic will take place in Stockholm on December 10.and this made him the seventh Indian or person of Indian origin to win the Nobel Prize. -------------------------------------------------------------Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, who was named for the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry this week, has been building towards this moment from childhood on. His passion for science and research has been so consuming that he gladly took a massive pay cut to move from the all-paid-for lab at the University of Utah to comparatively tiny quarters at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England [ Images ], simply so he could pursue his dream. 'Venki cared more about the science,' remarked Dana Carroll, professor and former chair of biochemistry at the University of Utah where Venkatraman's prize-winning work began between 1995 and 1999.

He is the fourth scientist of Indian origin to win a Nobel Prize after Sir C V Raman (Physics, 1983) Har Gobind Khorana, (Medicine, 1968) and Subramaniam Chandrashekhar (Physics, 1983)respectively. Born in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, to scientist parents C B Ramakrishnan and Rajalakshmi, 'Venki' moved to the United States in the early 1970s to earn a PhD in physics. Since then the scientist, who is a United States citizen, has in a career studded with high honours pushed the frontiers of knowledge back with an almost messianic zeal. It's all about loving research enough to make it your life mission, the newly-minted Nobel Laureate tells rediff.com's Suman Guha Mozumder: What is the one aspect of your life and work that earned you the Nobel Prize? I do not think I can answer that in one line. There are so many factors, so many developments, experiences, you know, that all come together at a time like this. Soon after you were named for the Nobel, you said you were indebted to others for the work that you have done. Could you name these people? I had great teachers in high school and the universities, and I had Professor Peter Moore who was my post-doctorate mentor at Yale. He was the person who introduced me to the ribosome. If I really have to mention one single person, it would be Peter Moore at Yale. Even during my undergraduate studies in India [ Images ], I had a number of excellent teachers in my high school. There was P C Patel, who was my mathematics and physics teacher, and he was one among a number of excellent teachers during my undergraduate and graduate studies in India. There are too many to name, but certainly they all had a hand in preparing me for this moment. How about Harry Noller, whose earlier work confirmed that the key elements of ribosome are made of RNA? Yes, Harry Noller is a great ribosome scientist. He influenced many people indirectly, but I did not work for him. How does your work on ribosomes translate into actual practice? How will it open up new areas in medical science, and aid in improving the health of mankind? Well, if they are able to design new antibiotics based on ribosome structure, that would be very valuable (to fight) infectious diseases. I think a fundamental understanding of biology, that impacts in so many indirect ways is important. I think you have to realise that if you improve fundamental knowledge, then indirectly you create all sorts of technology. Already, for instance, people are using these structures for new types of proteins. Your peers say you put research ahead of all other priorities. Where did this passion come from? I have been interested in science since I was 15. My parents were scientists too. So perhaps I grew up in an atmosphere of science -- maybe that is the reason. What has changed in the years since your post-doctoral work that made it possible to expose the structure of the ribosome?

One of the big things was the development of technology -- like powerful X-rays, synchrotron Xray detectors, faster computers, better computer graphics. How much credit would you give to India and your background there for achieving what you have? I think it would have been difficult to pursue my research had I remained in India, because of the lack of synchrotrons (which produce huge amounts of X-rays, allowing for X-ray photography to be done using small amounts of crystallised proteins). But having said that, I think the research situation in India has improved tremendously in the last 20 years. I think there are not many problems now in terms of research being done in India -- it is only a matter of people wanting to do it. Also, there is now quite a lot of money for research in India. Of course there is need for more, and it should be more widespread -- that is, directed towards basic science. Are you saying that since you left India, things have improved for researchers in your field? I think doing research on ribosomes will still be difficult, to be honest, because of the large use of synchrotron X-ray sources. Currently there are no suitable synchrotron X-ray sources in India. In fact, my Indian colleagues who use that technique have to travel to France [ Images ] or Japan [ Images ], and that makes it much more difficult. Every person of Indian origin who has won a Nobel in science has done his work outside the country. So what ails India? I do not think this has to do with facilities. It has to do with supporting basic science; broadly, educating people well in undergraduate studies and having a culture of respect for science. For instance, when I was an undergraduate student in India I had got admission to medical school as well, but I chose to go to for undergraduate studies in physics. And you know what, people thought that I was crazy to miss out on medical school. If we do not change that attitude, then it is not going to produce great science. If all bright people go for medical schools, engineering or management studies, then where are the bright people left to do science? So there is a need for cultural change. Do you see, among the talented people still working in India, any potential Nobel winners? I only know my own field, and cannot possibly comment in general. I sometimes hear about C N R Rao for instance (as a potential Nobel candidate). But I do not know the field he works in (solid state and structural chemistry). --------------------------------------------------------------