London, Oct 8 (IANS) Indian-origin scientist Venkatraman Ramakrishan Wednesday said that he is "honoured" to share 2009 Nobel Prize for Chemistry but added that it's a "mistake to define good work by awards".
Asked about his initial reaction when he heard the news, Venkatraman said: "Well, I think it's a great honour and surprise! I am very happy!"
"I think it's a mistake to define good work by awards. This is a typical mistake that the public or even the press make. None of you called me about my work even two days ago...right?" Ramakrishnan told BBC Hindi Service in an exclusive interview on phone from Cambridge, Britain.
"I think people have to do what interests (them) and then pursue it...that's the way to do important work. Whether prizes come your way or not, it's really not so important."
Ramakrishnan, who is now a US citizen, was named for the $1.42-million award along with American Thomas A. Steitz and Israeli Ada E. Yonath for their "studies of the structure and function of the ribosome", which is found in cells with nuclei and translates the DNA code into life.
He also said that India has many promising scientists but the press seemed to be "hung up on Western awards like the Nobel".
"There are lots of good scientists in India but I notice the press is hung up about these Western prizes like the Nobel Prize instead of appreciating the excellent work they (scientists) are doing within the context of India," he said.
Venkatraman was born in Chidambaram town in Tamil Nadu and left for the US after his graduation in 1971. When asked about Western countries still being the destination of Indian youths trying to fulfil their dreams of higher research, Venkataraman's reply was very candid.
"No, no I don't feel that it is necessary any more. There are lots of good labs in India where they can do excellent work. Well, in 1971 there were only a few places in India - there was not much research and money for research in India at that time."
"I have been to India several times since and these days there are some really fantastic places in India like the Indian Institute of Science and several others...those are very good places and very good scientists," Ramakrishnan, 57, said.
Talking about his student days, the scientist with MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge said: "In my days, the choices were rather limited. So the US was, and still is, the world centre for science, although Europe and UK are not comparable...so in those days I chose to go to the US. But to do the kind of work I wanted to do, I chose to come to Cambridge because the MRC Lab of microbiology has a long standing tradition of supporting difficult fundamental work".
When asked about the implications of his work, Venkatraman said: "My work is about the fundamental molecular machine that translates genetic code into protein so it's essential to understand life - it's one of the central problems in life...how genetic info is used to make protein. For that reason it's important. Many anti-biotics bind to ribosomes."
"And with these structures people have been able to see how these anti-biotics bind and that helps them to design new anti-biotics. This is one of the implications," he said.
India-born Scientist Wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry
TOI
Washington, Oct 8: An India-born structural biologist whose quest for scientific excellence took him from undergraduate schools in India to graduate and post-doc studies in US and research in UK was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for work on proteins that control life.
Dr Venkatraman ''Venky'' Ramakrishnan, 58, who had his early education in the temple town of Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, and Vadodra, Gujarat, before he made tracks to the United States, joined the long list of peripatetic Indians who had early education in India but thrived in the western academic eco-system, to have won the Nobel. Also with a chemistry Nobel, Indians or those with an India-connect figure in all prize categories.
The Swedish Nobel Committee awarded the Prize to Dr Ramakrishnan, who is currently affiliated with the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, for his work on protein-producing ribosomes, and its translation of DNA information into life. He will share the Prize with Dr Thomas Steitz of Yale University, Connecticut, and Dr Ada Yonath of Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.
In a statement following the announcement of the award, Dr Ramakrishnan expressed gratitude to ``all of the brilliant associates, students and post docs who worked in my lab as science is a highly collaborative enterprise.'' He credited the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and the University of Utah for supporting his work and the collegiate atmosphere there that made it all possible.
``The idea of supporting long term basic research like that at LMB does lead to breakthroughs, the ribosome is already starting to show its medical importance,'' he said.
The practical importance of Dr Ramakrishnan's work arises from ribosomes being present 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 bacteriums ability to make the proteins it needs to function.
Ramakrishnan, Steitz and Yonath demonstrated what the ribosome looks like and how it functions at an atomic level using a visualisation method called X-ray crystallography to map the position of each of the hundreds of thousands of atoms that make up the ribosome, according to the MRC.
``This year's three Laureates have all generated 3D models that show how different antibiotics bind to the ribosome. 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 Nobel citation explained.
Scientists say growing knowledge of the ribosome has created targets for a new generation of antibiotics. The instruction manual for the creation of proteins is DNA, but the ribosome is the machine which takes information transcribed onto messenger RNA and turns it into proteins.
Elaborating, the MRC said Dr Ramakrishnan's basic research on the arrangement of atoms in the ribosome has allowed his team not only to gain detailed knowledge of how it contributes to protein production but also to see directly how antibiotics bind to specific pockets in the ribosome structure. Dr Ramakrishnan will share the 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.4 million) Nobel Prize money (1/3rd each), in a ceremony in Stockholm on December 10.