Biography:Venki Ramakrishnan

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Short description: Indian-American structural biologist (born 1952)

Venki Ramakrishnan
Venki Ramakrishnan (cropped).jpg
Ramakrishnan in 2015
62nd President of the Royal Society
In office
1 December 2015 – 30 November 2020
Preceded byPaul Nurse
Succeeded byAdrian Smith
Personal details
Born
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

1952 (age 71–72)
Chidambaram, Madras State (now Tamil Nadu), India
Citizenship
  • Indian
  • United States
Spouse(s)
Vera Rosenberry (m. 1975)
[1]
Children1[1]
MotherRajalakshmi Ramakrishnan
RelativesLalita Ramakrishnan (sister)
ResidenceUnited Kingdom
Websitewww2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/group-leaders/n-to-s/venki-ramakrishnan
Venki Ramakrishnan
Known for
Awards
  • Knight Bachelor (2012)[2]
  • Padma Vibhushan (2010)
  • Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2009)[3]
  • Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine (2007)[4]
  • Member of the National Academy of Sciences (2004)
  • Order of Merit (2022)[5]
Academic background
Education
Alma materOhio University
ThesisThe Green Function Theory of the Ferroelectric Phase Transition in Potassium Dihydrogen-Phosphate (1976)
Doctoral advisorTomoyasu Tanaka[1][7]
Academic work
School or tradition
Institutions

Venkatraman "Venki" Ramakrishnan (born 1952) is a British-American structural biologist. He shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Thomas A. Steitz and Ada Yonath for research on the structure and function of ribosomes.[3][9][10][11]

Since 1999, he has worked as a group leader at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, UK and is a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.[12][13][14][15][16] He served as President of the Royal Society from 2015 to 2020.[17]

Education and early life

Ramakrishnan was born in 1952 in Chidambaram in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu, India.

His parents, Prof. C. V. Ramakrishnan and Prof. Rajalakshmi Ramakrishnan were both scientists,[18][19] and his father was head of the department of biochemistry at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda.[1][20] At the time of his birth, Ramakrishnan's father was away from India doing postdoctoral research with David E. Green at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the US.[1] Venki's mother obtained a PhD in psychology from McGill University in 1959,[21] completing it in only 18 months, and was mentored, among others, by Donald O. Hebb.[1]

Venki has one sibling, his younger sister Lalita Ramakrishnan, who is professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the department of medicine, University of Cambridge,[22] and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.[23]

Ramakrishnan moved to Vadodara (previously also known as Baroda) in Gujarat at the age of three, where he had his entire schooling at the Convent of Jesus and Mary, except for a year and a half (1960–61) duing which he and his family spent 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 Bachelor of Science degree in physics in 1971.[10] At the time, the physics course at Baroda was new, and based in part on the Berkeley Physics Course and The Feynman Lectures on Physics.[1]

Immediately after graduation he moved to the US, where he obtained his Doctor of Philosophy degree in physics from Ohio University in 1976 for research into the ferroelectric phase transition of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP)[24] supervised by Tomoyasu Tanaka.[7][25][26] Then he 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.[27]

Career and research

Ramakrishnan began work on ribosomes as a postdoctoral fellow with Peter Moore at Yale University.[10] After his post-doctoral fellowship, he initially could not find a faculty position even though he had applied to about 50 universities in the United States.[28][29]

He continued to work on ribosomes from 1983 to 1995 as a staff scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory.[8]

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 1991–92 on a Guggenheim Fellowship.[citation needed]

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.

(As of 2019) his most cited papers (according to Google Scholar[32]) have been published in Nature,[33][34][35] Science,[36][37] and Cell.[38][39][40]

Ramakrishnan's term as president of the Royal Society 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 2009

Ramakrishnan was elected a Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization in 2002,[44] a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2003,[45] and a Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2004.

In 2007, Ramakrishnan was awarded the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine[4] and the Datta Lectureship and Medal of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS).

Ramakrishnan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009, along with Thomas A. Steitz and Ada Yonath.[46] He received India's second highest civilian honor, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2010.[47]

In 2008, Ramakrishnan won the Heatley Medal of the British Biochemical Society, and became a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge and a foreign Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy. He has been a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and[48] an Honorary Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (Hon FMedSci) since 2010.

He has received honorary degrees from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, University of Utah and University of Cambridge. He is also an Honorary Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge,[49] Somerville College, Oxford,[50] and The Queen's College, Oxford.[51]

Ramakrishnan was knighted in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to molecular biology,[2] but does not generally use the title "Sir".[citation needed] That same year, he was awarded the Sir Hans Krebs Medal by the FEBS. In 2014, he was awarded the XLVI Jiménez-Díaz Prize by the Fundación Conchita Rábago (Spain).

In 2017, Ramakrishnan received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[52]

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-site tRNA 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 2020, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society[54] and became a board member of The British Library.[55]

Ramakrishnan was made a Member of the Order of Merit (OM) in 2022.[5]

Personal life

In 1975, Ramakrishnan married Vera Rosenberry, an author and illustrator of children's books.[1] Rosenberry was already the mother of a daughter, Tanya Kapka (now an Oregon-based doctor), by a previous relationship. The couple remain married and are the parents of a son, Raman Ramakrishnan, who is a cellist based in New York.[56]

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 "Venkatraman Ramakrishnan – Biography: From Chidambaram to Cambridge: A Life in Science". Stockholm. https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2009/ramakrishnan-bio.html. Retrieved 30 December 2022. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 No. 60009. 31 December 2011. p. 1. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/60009/supplement/1 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "2009 Chemistry Nobel Laureates". Nobel Foundation. 2009. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2009/. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine, jeantet.ch. Accessed 30 December 2022.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 His Majesty The King (11 November 2022). "New Appointments to the Order of Merit". https://www.royal.uk/new-appointments-order-of-merit. 
  6. ↑ Anon (2015). ",". Who's Who (online Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U45543. https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U45543.  (subscription or UK public library membership required)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Ramakrishnan, Venkatraman; Tanaka, Tomoyasu (1977). "Green's-function theory of the ferroelectric phase transition in potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP)". Physical Review B 16 (1): 422–426. doi:10.1103/physrevb.16.422. Bibcode: 1977PhRvB..16..422R. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Cerf, Corinne; Lippens, Guy; Muyldermans, Serge; Segers, Alain; Ramakrishnan, V.; Wodak, Shoshana J.; Hallenga, Klaas; Wyns, Lode (1993). "Homo- and heteronuclear two-dimensional NMR". Biochemistry 32 (42): 11345–11351. doi:10.1021/bi00093a011. PMID 8218199. 
  9. ↑ Rodnina, Marina V.; Wintermeyer, Wolfgang (2010). "The ribosome goes Nobel". Trends in Biochemical Sciences 35 (1): 1–5. doi:10.1016/j.tibs.2009.11.003. PMID 19962317. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 "Venkatraman_Ramakrishnan". University of Cambridge. http://www.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/ribo/homepage/ramak/. 
  11. ↑ Venkatraman Ramakrishnan Audio Interview Official Nobel Foundation website telephone interview
  12. ↑ Nair, Prashant (2011). "Profile of Venkatraman Ramakrishnan". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108 (38): 15676–15678. doi:10.1073/pnas.1113044108. PMID 21914843. Bibcode: 2011PNAS..10815676N.  open access
  13. ↑ "Biologist Venki Ramakrishnan to lead Royal Society". BBC News (London). 18 March 2015. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-31869779. 
  14. ↑ James, Nathan Rhys (2017). Structural insights into noncanonical mechanisms of translation. cam.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. doi:10.17863/CAM.13713. OCLC 1064932062. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.725540. Free to read
  15. ↑ Venki Ramakrishnan
  16. ↑ Ramakrishnan, Venki (2018). Gene machine. The race to decipher the secrets of the ribosome. London: Oneworld. ISBN 9781786074362. OCLC 1080631601. https://oneworld-publications.com/gene-machine-hb.html. 
  17. ↑ Peplow, M. (2015). "Structural biologist named president of UK Royal Society". Nature. doi:10.1038/nature.2015.17153. 
  18. ↑ "Common root: Tamil Nadu gets its third laureate". Times of India. TNN. 8 October 2009. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-5099742,prtpage-1.cms. 
  19. ↑ "Venki Ramakrishnan, Ph.D.". American Academy of Achievement. https://achievement.org/achiever/venki-ramakrishnan-ph-d/. 
  20. ↑ 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. doi:10.1038/168917a0. PMID 14899529. Bibcode: 1951Natur.168..917R. 
  21. ↑ Ramakrishnan, Rajalakshmi (1959). Comparative Effects of Successive and Simultaneous Presentation on Transfer in Verbal Learning (PhD thesis). McGill University. ProQuest 301865011.
  22. ↑ "Lalita Ramakrishnan Home page in Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge". http://www.med.cam.ac.uk/ramakrishnan/. 
  23. ↑ "Lalita Ramakrishnan elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences". University of Cambridge. http://www.cam.ac.uk/for-staff/awards/lalita-ramakrishnan-elected-to-the-us-national-academy-of-sciences. 
  24. ↑ Ramakrishnan, Venkatraman (1976). The Green function theory of the ferroelectric phase transition in KDP (PhD thesis). Ohio University. OCLC 3079828. ProQuest 302809453.
  25. ↑ "Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: a profile". Times of India. 7 October 2009. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-5098151,prtpage-1.cms. 
  26. ↑ "Factbox: Nobel chemistry prize – Who are the winners?". Reuters. 7 October 2009. https://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USTRE5962EE20091007. 
  27. ↑ "Profile: Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan". Indian Express. 7 October 2009. http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/526251/. 
  28. ↑ "Nobel laureate Venkat Ramakrishnan failed IIT, medical entrance tests". The Times of India. 5 January 2010. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Nobel-laureate-Venkat-Ramakrishnan-failed-IIT-medical-entrance-tests/articleshow/5414148.cms. 
  29. ↑ "Venki Ramakrishnan, Ph.D. Biography and Interview". American Academy of Achievement. https://achievement.org/achiever/venki-ramakrishnan-ph-d/#interview. Retrieved 30 December 2022. 
  30. ↑ Fernández, Israel S.; Bai, Xiao-Chen; Hussain, Tanweer; Kelley, Ann C.; Lorsch, Jon R.; Ramakrishnan, V.; Scheres, Sjors H. W. (15 November 2013). "Molecular architecture of a eukaryotic translational initiation complex". Science 342 (6160): 1240585. doi:10.1126/science.1240585. ISSN 1095-9203. PMID 24200810. 
  31. ↑ Amunts, Alexey; Brown, Alan; Bai, Xiao-Chen; Llácer, Jose L.; Hussain, Tanweer; Emsley, Paul; Long, Fei; Murshudov, Garib et al. (28 March 2014). "Structure of the yeast mitochondrial large ribosomal subunit". Science 343 (6178): 1485–1489. doi:10.1126/science.1249410. ISSN 1095-9203. PMID 24675956. Bibcode: 2014Sci...343.1485A. 
  32. ↑ Venki Ramakrishnan publications indexed by Google Scholar
  33. ↑ 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. doi:10.1038/35030006. PMID 11014182. Bibcode: 2000Natur.407..327W. 
  34. ↑ Ramakrishnan, V.; Carter, Andrew P.; Clemons, William M.; Brodersen, Ditlev E.; Morgan-Warren, Robert J.; Wimberly, Brian T. (2000). "Functional insights from the structure of the 30S ribosomal subunit and its interactions with antibiotics". Nature 407 (6802): 340–348. doi:10.1038/35030019. PMID 11014183. Bibcode: 2000Natur.407..340C. 
  35. ↑ Ramakrishnan, V.; Finch, J. T.; Graziano, V.; Lee, P. L.; Sweet, R. M. (1993). "Crystal structure of globular domain of histone H5 and its implications for nucleosome binding". Nature 362 (6417): 219–223. doi:10.1038/362219a0. PMID 8384699. Bibcode: 1993Natur.362..219R. 
  36. ↑ Selmer, M. (2006). "Structure of the 70S Ribosome Complexed with mRNA and tRNA". Science 313 (5795): 1935–1942. doi:10.1126/science.1131127. PMID 16959973. Bibcode: 2006Sci...313.1935S. 
  37. ↑ Ogle, J. M. (2001). "Recognition of Cognate Transfer RNA by the 30S Ribosomal Subunit". Science 292 (5518): 897–902. doi:10.1126/science.1060612. PMID 11340196. Bibcode: 2001Sci...292..897O. 
  38. ↑ Ramakrishnan, V. (2002). "Ribosome Structure and the Mechanism of Translation". Cell 108 (4): 557–572. doi:10.1016/s0092-8674(02)00619-0. PMID 11909526. 
  39. ↑ Brodersen, Ditlev E.; Clemons, William M.; Carter, Andrew P.; Morgan-Warren, Robert J.; Wimberly, Brian T.; Ramakrishnan, V. (2000). "The Structural Basis for the Action of the Antibiotics Tetracycline, Pactamycin, and Hygromycin B on the 30S Ribosomal Subunit". Cell 103 (7): 1143–1154. doi:10.1016/s0092-8674(00)00216-6. PMID 11163189. 
  40. ↑ Ogle, James M.; Murphy, Frank V.; Tarry, Michael J.; Ramakrishnan, V. (2002). "Selection of tRNA by the Ribosome Requires a Transition from an Open to a Closed Form". Cell 111 (5): 721–732. doi:10.1016/s0092-8674(02)01086-3. PMID 12464183. 
  41. ↑ Clive Cookson (20 November 2020). "'Voice of British science fights for future of UK research'". https://www.ft.com/content/dcc54f4e-9ace-41e5-8a0e-51a65abe3396. 
  42. ↑ Ian Tucke (15 July 2018). "Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: 'Britain's reputation has been hurt'". https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/jul/15/venkatraman-ramakrishnan-interview-brexit-science-funding-innovation-collaboration-royal-society. 
  43. ↑ A no-deal Brexit would be a disaster for the UK science community, The Independent. Accessed 30 December 2022.
  44. ↑ "The EMBO Pocket Directory". European Molecular Biology Organization. http://www.embo.org/documents/members/The_EMBO_Pocket_Directory.pdf. 
  45. ↑ "Sir Venki Ramakrishnan FRS". London: Royal Society. https://royalsociety.org/people/venki-ramakrishnan-12139/. 
  46. ↑ "All Nobel Laureates in Chemistry". Nobel Foundation. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/index.html. 
  47. ↑ "This Year's Padma Awards announced" (Press release). Ministry of Home Affairs. 25 January 2010. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
  48. ↑ "Venkatraman Ramakrishnan". German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. https://www.leopoldina.org/mitgliederverzeichnis/mitglieder/member/Member/show/venkatraman-ramakrishnan/. 
  49. ↑ https://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/fellows/master-fellows/honorary-fellows/
  50. ↑ "Emeritus and Honorary Fellows". Somerville College, Oxford. https://www.some.ox.ac.uk/about-somerville/emeritus-and-honorary-fellows/. 
  51. ↑ "Honorary & Supernumary Fellows". The Queen's College, Oxford. https://www.queens.ox.ac.uk/honorary-supernumerary-emeritus-fellows/. 
  52. ↑ "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement". American Academy of Achievement. https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#science-exploration. Retrieved 30 December 2022. 
  53. ↑ "Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: Certificate of Election EC/2003/31". London: The Royal Society. 2003. https://collections.royalsociety.org/DServe.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqPos=1&dsqSearch=%28%28text%29%3D%27ramakrishnan%27%29. 
  54. ↑ "The American Philosophical Society Welcomes New Members for 2020". https://www.amphilsoc.org/blog/american-philosophical-society-welcomes-new-members-2020. 
  55. ↑ "Venki Ramakrishnan appointed to the British Library Board". https://www.bl.uk/press-releases/2020/july/venki-ramakrishnan-appointed-to-the-british-library-board. 
  56. ↑ Amit Roy (17 October 2009). "'Venki' makes light of India link – Winner says not to treat science like cricket; league of misses grows". The Telegraph (Kolkata). http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091017/jsp/frontpage/story_11626163.jsp. 

External links

  • Miss nobel-id as parameter including the Nobel Lecture on 8 December 2009 Unraveling the Structure of the Ribosome
Professional and academic associations
Preceded by
Paul Nurse 		62nd President of the Royal Society
2015–2020 		Succeeded by
Adrian Smith



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