The 2009 Nobel Prize for chemistry has gone to Thomas Steitz, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Ada Yonath for “studies of the structure and function of the ribosome”. They take a third of the prize home each.

The new laureates used X-ray crystallography to reveal the structure of the ribosome, the factories in cells that turn DNA blueprints into the the finished products of proteins.

Contacted by Nature News, Ramakrishnan said “I’m in a bit of shock at the moment. So many people contributed, and the ribosome is so important, that I am just pleased to be one of the three.” (Read the full story later today.)

The prize committee notes that Ramakrishnan, Steitz and Yonath “showed what the ribosome looks like and how it functions at the atomic level. All three have used a method called X-ray crystallography to map the position for each and every one of the hundreds of thousands of atoms that make up the ribosome.”

Understanding the ribosome is also of importance to those designing antibiotics, which can work by blocking bacterial ribosomes.

Of course you can’t please everyone. One member of the Nature office who is rather purist about his science was heard muttering, “they gave it to biologists again”.

Ramakrishnan works at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. Steitz is at Yale University, USA. Yonath is at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. Congratulations to all!

Nobels 09

By country of residence

USA – 6

UK – 1.5

Israel – 1

China – 1/2

By country of birth

USA – 3

UK – 1

Australia – 1

China – 1

Canada – 1

India – 1

Israel – 1

By journal paper

Cell – 2

Nature – 1

Proceedings of the Institution of Electrical Engineers-London – 1

Bell System Technical Journal – 1

News

The first Nobel of 2009: Physiology or Medicine – Great Beyond

Chromosome protection scoops Nobel – Nature News

Nobels 09: Physics goes to ‘the masters of light’ – Great Beyond

Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to light pioneers – Nature News