Nobel Laureate Visits U

ACCORDING TO STRUCTURAL BIOLOGIST VENKATRAMAN "VENKI" RAMAKRISHNAN, “WE ALL HAVE IMPOSTER SYNDROME,” A PHENOMENON DESCRIBED AS SELF-DOUBT OF INTELLECT, SKILLS, OR ACCOMPLISHMENTS AMONG HIGH-ACHIEVING INDIVIDUALS.

In a much-anticipated lecture at the College of Science’s Frontiers of Science on September 27, Ramakrishnan detailed “My Adventures in the Ribosome.”

With a warm reminder to the standing-room-only crowd at the Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU) he explained that there were setbacks, re-directs, and moments of doubt for the structural biologist who helped solve the structure of biology's most important molecule

yet, shrouded in mystery ever since the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA 50 years earlier.

“Everything in the cell is either made by the ribosome or made by enzymes that are themselves made by the ribosome,” he said. The event was cosponsored by the U's Department of Biochemistry, U Health, and NHMU. His presentation ended with a spectacular animation which is featured in a new exhibit dedicated to the ribosome on the fourth floor of the NHMU.

It was a stirring finish for Venki Ramakrishnan, co-recipient of the Nobel prize in chemistry, who brought it all up to scale when he closed the evening by saying, “During the time you've been listening to me, the thousands of ribosomes in each of your cells have been churning out tens of thousands of proteins as we speak." <