Slanted Science

This year’s winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry have been announced: they’re Venkatraman Ramarkrishnan (Cambridge, UK); Thomas A. Steitz (Yale, USA); and Ada E. Yonath ( Rehovot, Israel). The three have been honored for their work (carried out independentlyfrom each other) into deciphering the 3-D molecular structure of ribosomes. They’re pictured above (photo from Reuters).

All proteins are just long chains of amino acids, joined together in a sequence which is unique to each protein. Ribosomes are responsible for gathering together the amino acids and assembling them in the correct order for any particular protein (as laid down in the “instruction manual” which is RNA, and which itself represents merely a “photocopy” of the master document, which is stored within the cell’s DNA).

These scientists used very specialized techniques – protein crystallization, x-ray crystallography, and high-level mathematics – to generate complete, accurate 3-D representations of these relatively enormous proteins.

Perhaps the work’s most wide-reaching benefit may be in aiding the development of novel antibiotics. As bacteria become reistant to all but a very few current agents, mankind really has to get moving so we can have some drugs ready as a last line of defence. Because many work through blocking the bacterial ribosome (leaving ours untouched), being able to accurately model the ribosome allows for computerized design of drugs which will bind ever more efficiently to the active sites, blocking bacterial protein production and killing the little buggers.

Congratulations to all the winners from SlantedScience.com