L’Express has placed the defense of rationality at the heart of its DNA. This is why, every week, we highlight the benefits that research bring to society, without ever hesitating to make our contribution to the fight against scientific disinformation. We have chosen, this year again, to extend this commitment by supporting researchers who share these fights thanks to a dedicated event: The prize ceremony for science and health personalities. The Grand Prix is awarded to Venki Ramakrishnan.
Older than DNA, they are nevertheless unknown to the general public, and even of a major part of scientists. The ribosomes decode the genetic information transcribed into messenger RNA in order to synthesize proteins, one of the oldest and fundamental biological actions. Proof of the importance of these universal particles, each molecule in any cell of any form of life is manufactured either by ribosomes or by enzymes which themselves have been produced by ribosomes. For a long time from fashion among biologists, these ribonucleclotic complexes were, from the 1990s, the subject of real competition between scientific teams in order to determine their atomic structure.
Relive the entire Science and Health Symposium of L’Express 2025 here
Venki Ramakrishnan is one of these pioneers, which earned him the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2009 with Thomas Steitz and Ada Yonath. In the exciting Gene Released in English in 2018, he reveals behind the scenes of this “race to decipher the secrets of the ribosome”, while returning to his astonishing course which has always made him an “outsider”.
Born in 1952 in India, Venki Ramakrishnan grew up in a family of scientists, between a biochemist father, a mother psychologist and a sister, Lalita, who became a professor of immunology. Large fan of Richard Feynman, legendary theorist and popularizer, he went to the United States to follow physics studies. But despite a doctorate obtained at the University of Ohio, the young man, hardly enthusiastic by his discipline, decides to start from scratch by introducing himself to biology at the University of California in San Diego. It is in postdoctorate in Yale that Venki Ramakrishnan discovers the ribosomes, under the leadership of Peter Moore. Researcher at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, then at the University of Utah, he joined in 1999 the molecular biology laboratory of Cambridge, accepting a wide loss of salary in order to integrate Mecca of the discipline. Cambridge is also the birthplace of crystallography, the most powerful technique for studying structures on a atomic scale. His wife Vera, an illustrator for children, who followed him throughout his career, warns him that this will be their last move. “The threat is still holding today,” laughs the scientist.
“Nobel disease”
In 2000, it was the turning point: its laboratory, using crystallography, determined the complete atomic structure of a 30S subunit, the smallest of the two subunits forming a ribosome. In 2007, the team brought to light the structure of an entire ribosome. If these works make it possible to understand how the ribosome “reads” the genetic code, they also have practical applications. Some antibiotics have the capacity to block the action of bacterial ribosomes. Understanding these structures thus gives hopes for the search for new antibiotics which can specifically inhibit bacterial ribosome, and therefore treat infections due to bacteria that develop classic antibiotic resistance.
In 2009, the Nobel Prize was for Venki Ramakrishnan that the start of a series of honors and awards. But, always modest, the man reminds Stockholm that his co-laureates and above all are “captains or team coaches”. On the evening of the announcement, his wife Vera immunized him against “Nobel disease” anyway, this syndrome which pushes certain winners to go beyond their area of competence and to express themselves on everything and nothing. His comment? “I thought you had to be really smart to win one of these prizes.”
From 2015 to 2020, Venki Ramakrishnan was president of the prestigious Royal Society, the oldest learned even in activity. As such, the Indian immigrant does not hesitate to take a stand against Brexit, believing that the departure of the European Union does wrong to the image of the United Kingdom as have to carry out scientific research. Opposing identity policies, he recalls that if, young, he had the heroes of the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, he also idolized Richard Feynman, Jew of Queens, and Marie Curie, Polish emigrated to France. More recently, he denounced immigration policies increasing visa and health insurance costs for foreigners.
Is a centenary company really enviable?
In 2024, Venki Ramakrishnan published the remarkable Why we die (Hodder Press), an essay praised by English -speaking criticism, and which will soon be translated into French by Odile Jacob editions. The Cambridge biologist traces the history of scientific advances on understanding aging and takes stock of the main avenues that could make it possible to delay the effects of age: caloric restriction, senolytic restriction [les cellules senescentes du corps]cell reprogramming, younger blood transfusions … if he believes that we are on the eve of major advances in longevity, he also puts scientists far too arrogant in their place, like Aubrey de Gray who declared that the first humans who will reach 1000 years are already born. Unlike many specialists in this in full effervescence sector (more than 700 start-ups have invested tens of billions of dollars), he has no financial or academic interest on the subject. Venki Ramakrishnan can freely bring his point of view on the progress of work on aging.
“With all the money spilled in this area, and with all the very good scientists who work there, something will eventually happen. The question is how long it will take. What I denounce are these companies that start to market products for humans from the results obtained in the laboratory on mice, without any other form of test,” he said. The researcher recalls that at present, to live as long as possible in good health, eat healthy, sleep well and do the exercise remain the most effective means. “These recommendations are known for a long time, but, for a long time, we ignored the biological rational which underlined them. Now, we know that moderate food will act on the tracks linked to the caloric restriction. The exercise has a regenerative power, among others on the mitochondrias [NDLR : les usines énergétiques des cellules]”But is a centenarian company really enviable? Taking its own example, Venki Ramakrishnan recalls that most of the advances in science are the fact of still young people.” It is not only a question of biological age: when you are young, you see the world with a new eye, you have no prejudices. As we get older, you become more conservative. “
An article in our special file “Personalities of L’Expresss the 2025 prices for science and health”, published on March 13.