Venki Ramakrishnan, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry: “When we die, most of our cells remain alive, but they don’t function as a whole.”

Venki Ramakrishnan is one of the world’s most respected scientists. Born in India to a father who was a biochemistry professor and a mother who taught psychology, he developed a deep curiosity about the natural world at an early age. That curiosity eventually led him to pursue a career in one of the most challenging scientific fields: physics.

Ramakrishnan earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Baroda in 1971 and completed his Ph.D. at Ohio University five years later. It did not take long, however, for him to realize that theoretical physics was too abstract for his interests. He made a dramatic career change and enrolled in biology.

After establishing himself as an accomplished physicist, Ramakrishnan went on to become one of the world’s leading biologists. His research focused on the translation of the genetic code, and in 2009, while working at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for mapping the atomic structure of the ribosome, the cellular machinery responsible for producing proteins. His research was especially important in explaining how antibiotics target bacterial ribosomes without harming human cells, laying the foundation for the development of next-generation antibiotics.

In interviews, Ramakrishnan often emphasizes the critical role proteins play in enabling communication between cells.

“These are the work horses of the cell… They give the cell its structure. Almost everything you think of as a property of life like vision or touch, or uh you know or antibodies, they’re all proteins,” he told Star Talk.

As proteins gradually deteriorate, the body eventually reaches the point where life can no longer be sustained. Ramakrishnan finds this process particularly fascinating because, as he explained to Wired, “At the time of death, most of the cells in our bodies are still alive, and entire organs are still functioning and can be donated to people in need of transplantation. But at that point the body has lost the ability to function as a whole.”

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