Indian-born physicist and molecular biologist who shares the Nobel prize with Thomas Steitz and Ada Yonath for their "studies of the structure and function of the ribosome". Better known as 'Venky' among friends, he has been a researcher at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England, since 1999 and a senior research fellow at Cambridge since 2008. Ramakrishnan has also authored several important papers in academic journals.
Background
Venkatraman was born in Chidambaram in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu, India, where he spent his life with his highly educated parents. His father headed the biochemistry department at the Maharaj Sayajirao University in Baroda and his mother obtained a Ph.D in psychology. They eventually collaborated in their work and greatly influenced Ramakrishnan's scientific interest from a young age. Through the influence of both his parents, Ramakrishnan became interested in science as a young student, which led him to partake his undergraduate studies in Physics. Immediately after graduation he moved to the U.S.A., where he obtained his PhD degree in Physics from Ohio University in 1976. 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. Through some hard work he was able to obtain a position at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge
Education
After obtaining his degree in Ohio University 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. While there, Ramakrishnan became interested in ribosomal work and was then offered a postdoctoral position at Don Engelmen and Peter Moore's lab working on a ribosome project involving membrane proteins.
Career
As a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University, he worked on a neutron-scattering map of the small ribosomal subunit of E Coli. After his postdoctoral fellowship, Ramakrishnan joined the staff of Brookhaven National Laboratory in ther US. There, he began his collaboration with Stephen White. 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. And finally he settled down in the Universite of Cambridge. He has been a researcher at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England, since 1999 and a senior research fellow at Cambridge since 2008.
