Ribosomes are molecular machines composed of RNA and protein that perform the critical function of translating messenger RNA (mRNA) into protein. In other words, they transform the genetic code from a static list of instructions into dynamic entities that constitute life. As the Nobel Foundation’s announcement eloquently put it, “they build and control life at the chemical level.”

In a tour-de-force of atomic chemistry, Ramakrishnan, Steitz, and Yonath used X-ray crystallography to locate each of the several hundred-thousand atoms that make up the ribosome and generated 3-D models of antibiotics binding to the structure. These models promise to spur the development of new antibiotics, which are so critical to modern medicine. Ultimately, they will have a critical impact in reducing suffering and mortality worldwide.

Check out our ribosome game here.

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan was born in India in 1952. He is the Senior Scientist and Group Leader at Structural Studies Division, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK.

Thomas Steitz was born in Milwaukee in 1940. He is the Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, at Yale University.

Ada E. Yonath was born in Israel in 1939. She is Director of the Helen & Milton A. Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular Structure & Assembly, at Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel.

Charles Kuen Kao will receive half the Prize for laying the foundations of the modern fiber optic industry. In 1966, he calculated how to transmit light signals over long distances using glass fibers. To that point, traditional materials had only been capable of transmitting signals over short distances (i.e. 50 feet). Kao’s discovery demonstrated how to send signals over many miles. Four years later, the first ultrapure glass fiber was built, increasing signal transmission by an order of magnitude of several thousand. Today, optic fibers are everywhere, and fuel Internet technologies that allow us to receive video, images, and sounds in microseconds. His discovery has had a profound impact on how creating the digital age.

Smith and Boyle's invention laid the foundation for the digital age

The second part of the award will be shared between William Sterling Boyle and George Elwood Smith for inventing CCD technology, most widely used to transform light into electric signals. CCDs are the apparatus that drive digital cameras by creating digital images from light signals. They were pioneering by Boyle and Smith in 1969 while at AT&T Bell Labs.

The award is also a nod toward the Nobel Prize’s best-known recipient, Albert Einstein, who won in 1921 for theoretical work on the photoelectric effect.

Charles Kao was Director of Engineering at Standard Telecommunication Laboratories, UK until 1996. He is a British and US citizen.

William Boyle was Executive Director of Communication Sciences Division, Bell Laboratories until 1979. He is a Canadian and US citizen.

George Smith was Head of VSLI Device Department, Bell Laboratories until 1986. He is a US citizen.

Carol Greider isolated the Telomeric Gene while at Cold Spring Harbor Lab

What is a Telomere?
A telomere is a region (or cap) of repetitive DNA at the end of every chromosome that basically protects the chromosome from deconstructing. Telomeres are an important element of the cell cycle – after every round of cell division, telomeres get shorter to the point where they no longer exist (and the cell is then destroyed).

What is Telomerase?
Telomerase is an enzyme that works against this type of shortening – it replenishes the chromosome by adding DNA sequence repeats to telomeres regions. It is particularly important during prenatal development, where it buffers against cell-instability and aging. When we mature, telomerase “switches off” in virtually all tissues, ensuring the cell will only complete a certain number of divisions (e.g. 20-70) before dying. The switching off of telomerase is important process in cancer biology – unrestrained dividing (i.e. cell immortality) is a classic hallmark of the cancer cell.

How was the discovery made?

With Joseph Gall, Elizabeth Blackburn pioneered the discovery of telomeres

With a lot of hard work! In 1978, Blackburn and Joseph Gall, then at Yale University, published a landmark paper, identifying telomeres paper as a repetitive chain of six-nucleotide sequences that comprised the chromosomes’ end. In a number of studies in the 1980s Blackburn and Szostak confirmed that these repeats stabilize chromosomes inside of cells and also predicted the existence of the telomerase enzyme.

Blackburn moved to the University of California and recruited Carol Greider as a graduate student. In what the Lasker Foundation described as a “tour de force of biochemistry”, Greider purified the telomerase protein and demonstrated its enzymatic activity. Greider moved to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where she achieved the ultimate milestone of isolating the RNA gene that encodes for the telomeric template.

The award recognizes importance of telomeres and telomerase to understanding the fundamental properties of the cell and cell-division. Telomeres and telomerase are important components of aging and cancer research.

Blackburn, Greider, Szostak, and Gall are currently based in the University of California, San Francisco , Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and the Carnegie Institution respectively.