It's Chemistry day, and today's announcement came from Sweden that Dr. Thomas Steitz, Dr. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Dr. Ada Yonath will split equally the Nobel Prize. The work honored is near and dear to my own scientific heart - the discoveries of the molecular structure of the ribosome.
The ribosome is a cellular machine is responsible for translating genetic information (in the form of messenger RNA) into the proteins that do most of the work in our cells. There are tens of thousands of different proteins in our bodies, and the ribosome is required to make every single one of them - a critically important and ongoing task inside the cell. But what scientists really need to understand how enzymes like the ribosome work is a picture of its 3-dimensional structure at the molecular level.
All three researchers honored today used a process called X-ray crystallography to obtain such images of the ribosome. By "growing" crystallized forms of ribsomes and blasting the crystals with X-rays, scientists can obtain information about the organization of atoms within a molecule. (Note: this is a super-simplification of this process, which can be extraordinarily time-consuming and involves complex math and physics principles.) The refined structures generated in 2000 by today's winners showed, among other things, that RNA is present at the active site of the ribosome (where protein synthesis actually happens).
A short video from Dr. Yonath's work on what protein synthesis might look like:
Ribosome in action
In addition to providing insight to how the fundamental process of protein synthesis works, the ribosome structures also opened the door for new drug therapies. Bacteria and other live pathogens all have ribosomes, and approximately 50% of current antibiotics target those ribosomes. Knowing the structure may lead to more effective treatments in future drug development.
Nobel connection time . . . I have met and spoken with 2 of today's new Laureates! Dr. Steitz and Dr. Yonath have both attended some of the same research conferences I have, where I've spoken with them both. And on top of that, Dr. Joan Steitz, who is Dr. Thomas Steitz's wife and a terrifically amazing scientist herself, spoke to me at an international meeting in 2005, saying she was impressed with my research findings. OMG, Dr. Joan Steitz actually came up to speak to me! I get totally starstruck at these meetings, nervous and worried I'll say something stupid in front of scientific celebrities. But both Dr. Steitzes and Dr. Yonath were really gracious and supportive of this young, wide-eyed grad student.
Let the Nobel connections keep a-coming! Up Thursday: Literature. I might have to work harder for this one . . .
-Rabiah
Author's Note: Sources:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2009/press.html
http://www.biology4kids.com/files/cell_ribos.html
http://www.ruppweb.org/Xray/101index.html
http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigators/steitzja_bio.html
Editor's Note: For more blogs from Dr. Rabiah, visit Science Chicago's website at: http://www.sciencechicagoblog.com
