MRC researcher wins Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine
Tuesday 16th January
Research that could help fight antibiotic resistant bacteria has won the 2007 Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine for Dr Venki Ramakrishnan, joint head of the Structural Studies Division at the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.
The prize is awarded annually to biomedical research scientists working in Europe. It includes £260,000 to fund research in the winner’s laboratory and £50,000 for personal use.
Dr Ramakrishnan receives the Louis-Jeantet prize for his work to identify the atomic structure of the ribosome, a small particle that uses the information encoded in genes to make proteins, which carry out a wide variety of functions in the cell. The ribosome is found in all living cells, including those of bacteria. Human and bacterial ribosomes are slightly different, making the ribosome a good target for antibiotic therapy that works by blocking the bacterium’s ability to make the proteins it needs to function.
The ribosome itself was discovered about 50 years ago and consists of two subunits that work together. However, because it is made up of over 150,000 atoms, generating a high resolution structure seemed unfeasible even a decade ago.
Three dimensional image of the atomic structure of a ribosome, generated using X-ray crystallography.
Following a breakthrough in 1999, Ramakrishnan and his colleagues determined the atomic structure of one of the subunits in 2000. More recently, they have solved the entire three dimensional structure of the ribosome.
This basic research on the arrangement of atoms in the ribosome has allowed Ramakrishnan’s team not only to gain detailed knowledge of how it contributes to protein production but also to directly see how antibiotics bind to specific pockets in the ribosome structure. This could help researchers to design antibiotics to treat people who are infected with a bacterium that has developed antibiotic resistance, for example some of the strains of bacteria that cause tuberculosis. Better targeting of the bacterial ribosome should also help to avoid negative effects on human cells thereby reducing the side effects of taking antibiotics.
He said: ‘‘With so much excellent research being done in many labs, I feel lucky to have received this recognition and also thank the wonderful colleagues I've had over the years who made our research possible. The award will help us attempt some riskier and more challenging projects.’’
He continued: ‘‘I moved to the UK from America in large part because of the Medical Research Council's policy of providing long-term stable support for basic science at its Laboratory of Molecular Biology, which is particularly helpful for this type of work.’’
The Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine was established in 1986 and has been awarded to 64 researchers in Europe. Of these, 21 worked in the UK, many of whom were supported by the Medical Research Council.
Cancer Research UK researcher, Dr Stephen West, a Senior Group Leader at CRUK’s Clare Hall Laboratories in London, has also been honoured with the award for his pioneering work on DNA repair mechanisms. In the 1990s he established a link between the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 and breast cancer.
The prizes will be officially awarded at a ceremony in Geneva in April.
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