Ramakrishnan began work on ribosomes as a postdoctoral fellow with Peter Moore at Yale University.[10] After his postdoctoral fellowship,he initially could not find a faculty position even though he had applied to about 50 universities in the United States.[28][29]
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. In 2007,his laboratory determined the atomic structure of the whole ribosome in complex with its tRNA and mRNA ligands. Since 2013,he has used Cryogenic electron microscopy to work primarily on eukaryotic and mitochondrial translation.[30][31] Ramakrishnan is also known for his past work on histone and chromatin structure.
Ramakrishnan's term as president of the Royal Society from 2015-2020 was dominated by Brexit and,in his final year,the COVID-19 pandemic and its response.[41] In an interview in July 2018,he said that Britain's decision to leave the European Union was hurting Britain's reputation as a good place to work in science,commenting "It's very hard for the science community to see any advantages in Brexit. They are pretty blunt about that." He saw advantages to both the UK and the EU for Britain to continue to be engaged in Galileo and Euratom,which,unlike the European Medicines Agency,are not EU agencies.[42]
Ramakrishnan argued that a no-deal Brexit would harm science. Ramakrishnan wrote,"A deal on science is in the best interests of Europe as a whole and should not be sacrificed as collateral damage over disagreements on other issues. If we are going to successfully tackle global problems like climate change,human disease and food security,we can't do so in isolation. There is no scenario where trashing our relationships with our closest scientific collaborators in the EU gets us closer to these goals."[43]
Awards and honours
Ramakrishnan at the Nobel Prize Press conference in 2009The President,Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil presenting Padma Vibhushan Award to Dr. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan,at the Civil Investiture Ceremony-I,at Rashtrapati Bhavan,in New Delhi on March 31,2010
Ramakrishnan was included as one of 25 Greatest Global Living Indians by NDTV Channel,India on 14 December 2013.
His certificate of election to the Royal Society reads:
Ramakrishnan is internationally recognised for determination of the atomic structure of the 30S ribosomal subunit. Earlier he mapped the arrangement of proteins in the 30S subunit by neutron diffraction and solved X-ray structures of individual components and their RNA complexes. Fundamental insights came from his crystallographic studies of the complete 30S subunit. The atomic model included over 1500 bases of RNA and 20 associated proteins. The RNA interactions representing the P-sitetRNA and the mRNA binding site were identified and the likely modes of action of many clinically important antibiotics determined. His most recent work goes to the heart of the decoding mechanism showing the 30S subunit complexed with poly-U mRNA and the stem-loop of the cognate phenylalanine tRNA. Anti-codon recognition leaves the "wobble" base free to accommodate certain non-Watson/Crick basepairs, thus providing an atomic description of both codon:anti-codon recognition and "wobble". He has also made substantial contributions to understanding how chromatin is organised, particularly the structure of linker histones and their role in higher order folding.[53]
In 1975, Ramakrishnan married Vera Rosenberry, an author and illustrator of children's books.[1] He has a step-daughter, Tanya Kapka, a physician specializing in public health and health-care delivery to under-served communities; and a son, Raman Ramakrishnan, a cellist specializing in chamber music and professor at Bard College in New York State.[56]
Selected publications
Why We Die: And How We Live: The New Science of Ageing and Longevity (2024)[57]
Gene Machine: The Race to Decipher the Secrets of the Ribosome(2018)[58]
↑ Ramakrishnan, C. V.; Banerjee, B. N. (1951). "Mould Lipase: Effect of Addition of Vitamins and Sterol to the Cake Medium on the Growth and the Activity of the Lipolytic Mould". Nature. 168 (4282): 917–918. Bibcode:1951Natur.168..917R. doi:10.1038/168917a0. PMID14899529. S2CID4244697.
↑ Ramakrishnan, Rajalakshmi (1959). Comparative Effects of Successive and Simultaneous Presentation on Transfer in Verbal Learning (PhD thesis). McGill University. ProQuest301865011.
↑ Ramakrishnan, Venkatraman (1976). The Green function theory of the ferroelectric phase transition in KDP (PhD thesis). Ohio University. OCLC3079828. ProQuest302809453.
↑ Ramakrishnan, V.; Wimberly, Brian T.; Brodersen, Ditlev E.; Clemons, William M.; Morgan-Warren, Robert J.; Carter, Andrew P.; Vonrhein, Clemens; Hartsch, Thomas (2000). "Structure of the 30S ribosomal subunit". Nature. 407 (6802): 327–339. Bibcode:2000Natur.407..327W. doi:10.1038/35030006. PMID11014182. S2CID4419944.
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