Chemistry Nobel Prize 2009 goes to Ribosome Researchers!

The 2009 Nobel Chemistry Prize goes to Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz, both from the USA and to Ada Yonath, from Israel. The European Peptide Society would like to congratulate all awardees for their achievements.

If you would like to be kept up-to-date on the function of ribosomes, you can read the Ada Yonath et. al. recent review in the Journal of Peptide Science. The review was based on a plenary lecture given at the 11th Naples Workshop on Bioactive Peptides.

Ribosome’s mode of function: myths, facts and recent results

Abstract

Ribosomes translate the genetic code into proteins in all living cells with extremely high efficiency, owing to their inherent flexibility and to their spectacular architecture. During the last 6 decades, extensive effort has been made to elucidate the molecular mechanisms associated with their function, and a quantum jump has been made in recent years, once the three dimensional structures of ribosomes and their functional complexes have been determined. These illuminated key issues in ribosome function, confirmed various biochemical, genetic, and medical findings, and revealed mechanistic details beyond previous expectation, thus leading to conceptual revolutions, and turning old myths into actual facts.

Registered users of the pepsoc.com and the European Peptide Society website can read the full article for free:

• J. Pept. Sci. 2009; 15: 122–130
• Issue 2, February 2009
• DOI 10.1002/psc.1077