2009 Chemistry Nobel Prize
By: Reid Michalski, Hannah No, Kireet Pajjur
WHO WON?
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
- Born in 1952 in Tamil Nadu, India
- Came to America for college, went to Yale University, and studied the field of biochemistry
- Currently works at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England
- Interesting Fact: He applied for 50 jobs out of college and didn't get a single interview.
Thomas A. Steitz
- Born on August 23, 1940 in Milwaukee
- Biochemist
- Shares 1/3 of the nobel chemistry prize
- Interesting Fact: He went to Yale University and now works with a research team at Yale.
Ada E. Yonath
- Born on June 22, 1939 in Jerusalem, Israel
- Studied biochemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- Performed her research on ribosomes at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel
- Interesting Fact: She is one of few women and one of few people from israel to win the Nobel prize.
WHAT DID THEY DO?
LAB/EXPERIMENTS
-Ada went to the Dead Sea to collect ribosomes.
-Ribosomes make proteins.
-She took the ribosomes and turned them into crystals, like salt.
-She sent X-rays through the crystals to find out exactly where the ribosomes were.
-Thomas Steitz also helped Ada figure out where the ribosomes were located.
RESULT OF EXPERIMENT
-Scientists now know which parts of a ribosome are involved in a certain reaction step.
-Thanks to these three scientists we know exactly where different antibiotics attack ribosomes.
-Antibiotics are medicine that fight off your illnesses.
WHY THEY WON?
-Ramakrishnan, Steitzwon, Yonath won for their studies of the structure and function of the ribosome.
-This scientific contribution was important because they discovered how a ribosome looks and functions inside the body. Ribosomes are important because they produce proteins.
-Before this major discovery, there was a problem of not knowing where certain antibiotics were affecting the ribosomes.
-Their discovery didn't challenge previous knowledge on this topic of ribosomes.
-With the discovery of its structure and function, ribosomes are becoming important in saving lives.
-Ribosomes are major targets for new antibiotics. This research will lead to a bigger development in antibiotics and other medicine.