Indian-American Ramakrishnan wins `09 Chemistry Nobel Prize

Prasun Sonwalkar

London, Oct 7 (PTI) Indian-American Venkatraman
Ramakrishnan Wednesday won the 2009 Nobel prize for Chemistry
along with two others for their path-breaking work on
ribosomes which may help in the developement of new
antibiotics.

57-year-old Ramakrishnan, who hails from the temple
town of Chidambaram in India's southern state of Tamil Nadu,
will share USD 1.4 million award with Thomas Steitz of the US
and Ada Yonath of Israel.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said three
dimensional models developed by the three scientists showed
how different antibiotics bind to ribosomes.

"These models are now used by scientists in order to
develop new antibiotics, directly assisting the saving of
lives and decreasing humanity's suffering," the academy said
in its citation.

An elated Ramakrishnan, the seventh Indian or of
Indian origin to get the award, said, "I have to say that I am
deeply indebted to all of the brilliant associates, students
and post docs who worked in my lab as science is a highly
collaborative enterprise."

The other Nobel awardees are Rabindranath Tagore
(Literature), C V Raman (Physics), Hargobind Khorana (Medicine
and Phsyiology), Subramaniam Chandrasekar (Physics), Amartya
Sen (Economics) and V S Naipaul (Literature). (MORE) PTI