Prof. Venki Ramakrishnan MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, UK

Venki Ramakrishnan is a Scientist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. In 2000, his laboratory determined the atomic structure of the 30S ribosomal subunit and its complexes with ligands and antibiotics. This work has led to insights into how the ribosome "reads" the genetic code, as... read morewell as into various aspects of antibiotic function. In 2006, his laboratory determined the atomic structure of the entire ribosome bound to its mRNA and tRNA substrates. Dr. Ramakrishnan was elected to the Royal Society in 2003 and to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2004. In 2009, along with Tom Steitz and Ada Yonath, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome".