CME INDIA Presentation by ⚜ Dr. M. Gowri Sankar, MD, Senior Assistant Professor, Dept. of General Medicine, Government Medical College and ESI Hospital, Coimbatore.
Today’s History Feature:
Dr. Venkataraman Ramakrishnan
🇮🇳 The Pride of India 🇮🇳
(Born – April 5, 1952)
💠Indian-Born Physicist & Molecular Biologist
His contributions…
🔸Dr. Venkataraman Ramakrishnan is popularly known as Dr. Venki Ramakrishnan. He was born in Chidambaram, an ancient temple town in Tamil Nadu.
🔸His father was a scholar with a Doctorate in Biochemistry and his mother was also a scholar with Doctorate in Psychology.
🔸His father got appointed as the Head of Department of Biochemistry at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. So, his family moved to Baroda when he was young. In fact, Ramakrishnan was highly inspired by his parents.
🔸Actually, he wanted to be a scientist, so he pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Baroda. Later, he emigrated to United States and received his Ph.D. in Physics from Ohio University in 1976.
🔸During the early days of his career, he had a deep interest in Physics and gradually shifted towards molecular biology. Hence, he studied biology for two years at the University of California, San Diego.
🔸In the year 1982, he did his postdoctoral research at Yale University under his mentor Dr. Peter Moore, who insisted him to study ribosomes in the bacterium Escherichia coli.
🔸As a scientist, Dr. Ramakrishnan worked at Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York. By using the X-ray crystallography method, he elucidated the structure of ribosomes and also other molecules, such as chromatin and the proteins known as histones.
🔸Thereafter, Dr. Ramakrishnan moved to his present position as a group leader at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the University of Cambridge, England in 1999.
🔸After 15 years of his work on ribosomes, he published his ground-breaking scientific papers in which he presented data on the RNA structure and the organization of 30s ribosomal subunit in Thermus thermophilus (a bacterium used in genetic research).
🔸Subsequently, he revealed the structure of antibiotics bound to 30s subunits of ribosomes as well as its mRNA and tRNA ligands.
🔸Ultimately, his research work led to the insights of how the ribosome reads the genetic code, as well as various aspects of antibiotic function in ribosomes.
🔸He received the following honour for his scientific studies:
🔅Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine in 2007
🔅Shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2009 for his research into the atomic structure and function of ribosomes.
🔅 Padma Vibhushan, second highest civilian award from Government of India in 2010.
🔸Also, he held several prestigious positions during his lifetime…
🔅Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2004.
🔅Member of the Indian National Science Academy in 2008.
🔅Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 2003.
🔅Received United Kingdom’s Knight Bachelor in 2012.
🔅First Indian to became a President of Royal Society of London in 2015.
🔸Apart from that, Dr. Venki Ramakrishnan is the author of Gene Machine, a popular book on the quest for the structure of the ribosome.
A Day to Commemorate…
An Indian Nobel Laureate Who made Adventures in the Ribosome
Celebrating his birthday today 💐
Dr. Venki Ramakrishnan 🙏🏼
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Great regards to legend and heartiest Birthday wishes to Dr V Ramakrishnan 🙏🏽🙏🏽🎉🎉
First’ of heart felt thanks to Dr Gowrishankar for writing the portrait on Dr Vengi Ramakrishnan from our Chidambaram,Who deserves all the honour, the service to medical field!
Happy Birthday, God bless Dr Vengi Ramakrishnan healthy and Long Life !
Sincere, heartiest birthday wishes to Dr V Ramakrishnan and congratulations. Regards to Genius *pride of India* 🙏🏽🙏🏽👏🏼👏🏼