'Venkatraman's work as important as penicillin discovery'

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London: The scientific breakthrough provided by Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, the Indian-born scientist who has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, could become as significant as the discovery of penicillin, Britain's science minister has said. ''Venki's work on the ribosome... could prove as relevant to human health as the discovery of penicillin itself,'' Lord Paul Drayson said after Ramakrishnan was Wednesday named alongside Thomas Steitz of America and Ada Yonath of Israel for the coveted prize. ''By relentlessly exploring the arrangements of atoms in the ribosome, Venki and his team have been helping in the design of antibiotics and laying the foundation of synthetic biology,'' Drayson said.

Image: Joint winner of the 2009 chemistry Nobel Prize Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, sits in his lab at the Medical Research Council Lab in Cambridge, England on October 7, 2009.