Venki Ramakrishnan

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It's interesting because You know, everybody thinks they know what DNA is. They've all heard of it. Even if they don't actually know what DNA does, they know it has something vaguely to do with our genes. But if you ask them what a ribosome is, most people have never heard of it. Never heard of it.

It's interesting because You know, everybody thinks they know what DNA is. They've all heard of it. Even if they don't actually know what DNA does, they know it has something vaguely to do with our genes. But if you ask them what a ribosome is, most people have never heard of it. Never heard of it.

And the thing about the ribosome is without the ribosome, DNA would almost have no meaning because DNA encodes genetic information. but it's really the ribosome that reads that genetic information to produce that whole orchestra of proteins that makes a cell actually be able to live, carry out all the reactions, but also build all of the structures in the cell.

And the thing about the ribosome is without the ribosome, DNA would almost have no meaning because DNA encodes genetic information. but it's really the ribosome that reads that genetic information to produce that whole orchestra of proteins that makes a cell actually be able to live, carry out all the reactions, but also build all of the structures in the cell.

All of those structures are either made of proteins or built by proteins. So I like to say that almost everything in the cell was either made by the ribosome or was made by enzymes that were made by the ribosome. So you can think of it as the sort of mother or grandmother of all things in the cell. And it's also older than DNA. It goes back to an RNA world.

All of those structures are either made of proteins or built by proteins. So I like to say that almost everything in the cell was either made by the ribosome or was made by enzymes that were made by the ribosome. So you can think of it as the sort of mother or grandmother of all things in the cell. And it's also older than DNA. It goes back to an RNA world.

Before DNA was used to encode genetic information, life probably began as an RNA cell. world because RNA can both carry out catalysis or chemical reactions, but it can also store genetic information. And the earliest ribosomes were probably made just of RNA and were somehow used to make small random proteins. And eventually a coding mechanism evolved so that you started making coding proteins.

Before DNA was used to encode genetic information, life probably began as an RNA cell. world because RNA can both carry out catalysis or chemical reactions, but it can also store genetic information. And the earliest ribosomes were probably made just of RNA and were somehow used to make small random proteins. And eventually a coding mechanism evolved so that you started making coding proteins.

So that was the beginning of genetics, of gene-encoded protein synthesis. And it's an enormous machine. It was discovered in the 50s, but a human ribosome has about half a million atoms. And so even though it was discovered in the 50s and then people started to figure out what it was made off and what it did, the exact mechanism, how it actually worked remained a mystery for a long time.

So that was the beginning of genetics, of gene-encoded protein synthesis. And it's an enormous machine. It was discovered in the 50s, but a human ribosome has about half a million atoms. And so even though it was discovered in the 50s and then people started to figure out what it was made off and what it did, the exact mechanism, how it actually worked remained a mystery for a long time.

And that's because when you have a big complicated machine, if you don't know what it looks like, it's very hard to make detailed hypotheses about how it works. It's amazing that biochemists made as much progress as they did without ever having seen what a ribosome looked like.

And that's because when you have a big complicated machine, if you don't know what it looks like, it's very hard to make detailed hypotheses about how it works. It's amazing that biochemists made as much progress as they did without ever having seen what a ribosome looked like.

You know, that just shows how clever many biochemists are in doing the kinds of experiments where they could make inferences. But ultimately, solving the structure was a game changer. And it allowed people to do much more detailed mechanistic experiments to understand how it all worked. And now, you know, it's led the way to understanding how the ribosome is regulated, because that's

You know, that just shows how clever many biochemists are in doing the kinds of experiments where they could make inferences. But ultimately, solving the structure was a game changer. And it allowed people to do much more detailed mechanistic experiments to understand how it all worked. And now, you know, it's led the way to understanding how the ribosome is regulated, because that's

you know, you mentioned my book on aging, the connection between ribosomes and aging is that the regulation of ribosomes start to unravel as we get older. And so a lot of current works about ribosome regulation and regulation of protein synthesis.

you know, you mentioned my book on aging, the connection between ribosomes and aging is that the regulation of ribosomes start to unravel as we get older. And so a lot of current works about ribosome regulation and regulation of protein synthesis.