CONTRIBUTION

OF
V. RAMAKRISHNAN
Presented by
SWARNAPRABHA DAKUA
1st SEMESTER
DEPT. OF EDUCATION
CENTRAL UNIVERSITY OF KARNATAKA
BIOGRAPHY

 Venkatraman Ramakrishnan is a structural biologist at the Medical

Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology in
Cambridge, England.
 He was born in 1952 in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu.
 He did his B.Sc. In Physics (1971) from Maharaja Sayaji Rao University of Baroda on a
National Science Talent Scholarship from NCERT.
 He then moved to USA and did his Ph.D. in Physics from Ohio University (1976).
 Then he did his graduation in Biology from University of California.
CONTRIBUTIONS OF V.RAMKRISHNAN

• V.Ramkrishnan work on the atomic structure of the

ribosome.
• As the site within living cells where the genetic information
is read to synthesise proteins from amino acids, improved
understanding of the ribosome has yielded many
fundamental biological insights.
• He determined the atomic structure of the 30S ribosomal
subunit followed by structures of the entire ribosome in
many different states and in complexes with several
antibiotics.
CONTRIBUTIONS OF V.RAMKRISHNAN

 More recently, he has been using electron microscopy to

visualise ribosomes in action in higher organisms. This
work has advanced our understanding of how the
ribosome works and how antibiotics inhibit it.

 In the past he has also worked on histone and chromatin

structure, which help us to understand how DNA is
organised in cells.
 In 1999, Ramkrishnan’s laboratory published a 5.5
angstrom resolution structure of the 30s subunit.
 CONCLUSION

 Using a method known as x-ray

crystallography, V. Ramkrishnan and
other researchers were able to collaborate
to map the structure of ribosomes, made
up of hundreds of thousands of atoms, in
2000.
 Among other applications, this has been
important in the production of antibiotics.
 ACHIEVEMENTS AND HONOURS

 Venki received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on ribosomal structure
and was knighted in 2012.
 He is a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina and
EMBO, and a Foreign Member of the Indian National Science Academy.
 He was President of the Royal Society from November 2015 until November
2020.
THANK YOU

Guided by:
Dr. Buchi Reddy
Dept. of Education
Central University of Karnataka