Stockholm -US duo Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A Steitz, and Israeli Ada E Yonath, were Wednesday named winners of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for fundamental discoveries about a key life process, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said. The trio were cited "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome" one of the core processes in life, the academy said.
Ribosomes produce proteins that control the chemistry in all living organisms. The academy said the ribosome translates the DNA code into life, and said it could be likened to "the cell's own protein factory."
The three laureates used so-called X-ray crystallography to chart the hundreds of thousands of atoms that make up the ribosome.
The trio shared the prize worth 10 million kronor (1.4 million dollars) but had worked independently of each other, the academy said.
Their research is used by scientists hoping to develop new antibiotics.
About half of the current antibiotics in use block the function of bacterial ribosomes, but there is also a growing problem of multiresistant bacteria, the academy said.
Ramakrishnan said minutes after the announcement that in his view it was becoming increasingly difficult to identify three people who have contributed to a field.
"Science is a highly cooperative enterprise," he told Swedish radio, comparing his role to that of a captain or a coach of a team, "so in a way ... we are merely representatives of a large endeavour."
"A lot of people have contributed to the ribosome," he said, adding it was "fundamental to biology... and deserves recognition."
Ramakrishnan described co-laureate Yonath as "a pioneer," citing her efforts to crystallize the ribosome that began in the late 1970s.
Professor Yonath, who is with the department of structural biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, said she was "very happy" over the award and aimed to continue her research.
Steitz, professor of molecular biophysics at Yale University, Connecticut, said he was preparing to go the gym when the call with the prize announcement came from Stockholm.
"My caller from Stockholm said I shouldn't go to the gym. There would be phone calls," Steitz, born 1940, told Swedish radio's science desk.
Steitz added that a few years ago he had founded a company that was developing antiobiotics based on the finds.
Ramakrishnan, born 1952 in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, is with the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology at Cambridge University.
Ramakrishnan said he had not had time to inform his wife about the news when he was reached by Swedish radio, and said his initial reaction was "that it was some kind of joke" before he recognized the names of some of the people calling from the Academy.
The chemistry prize was the third of this year's Nobel Prizes.
US researchers Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak on Monday won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine for discoveries that are significant to knowledge about cancer, ageing and inherited genetic diseases.
On Tuesday,Charles K Kao, Willard S Boyle and George E Smith won the Nobel Prize in Physics for discoveries behind data and telephone transmissions and the digital camera.
The award ceremony is scheduled for December 10, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite who endowed the awards.
The Nobel for literature is to be announced Thursday, followed by prizes for peace and economics in the days that follow.
