Monday, September 15, 6:00 p.m.
Berg Auditorium, 100 Life Sciences Building
“ The Ribosome: The Cell's Protein Synthesis
Factory and How Antibiotics Target It
”
Welcoming remarks by
Dr. Arthur Lesk ,
Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular
Biology
Tuesday, September 16, 11:30 a.m.
Berg Auditorium, 100 Life Sciences Building
“
What Structures of the Ribosome have
Revealed about Its Role in Decoding of mRNA
”
Time will be allotted for questions and discussion after each lecture.
Dr. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
Dr. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan , group leader and joint head of the Structural Studies Division of the Medical Research Council Laboratory of
Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, will present the Russell Marker Lectures in Genetic
Engineering on 15 and 16 September 2008 at the
Penn State University Park campus. The free public lectures are sponsored by the Penn State Eberly
College of Science.
The series includes a lecture intended for a general audience, titled “The Ribosome: The Cell's Protein
Synthesis Factory and How Antibiotics Target It,” at
6:00 p.m. on Monday, 15 September, in the Berg
Auditorium, 100 Life Sciences Building.
Ramakrishnan also will give a more specialized lecture, titled “What Structures of the Ribosome have Revealed about Its Role in Decoding of mRNA,” at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, 16 September, in the Berg Auditorium, 100 Life Sciences Building.
Ramakrishnan grew up in India and came to the
United States over 30 years ago. After initially being trained as a physicist at Ohio University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1976, he switched to biology at the University of California, San Diego, where he enrolled as a graduate student for two years. His interest in ribosomes dates back 30 years when he joined Peter Moore’s laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University in 1978. He began his independent career at Brookhaven National
Laboratory in 1983. In 1995, he moved to the
University of Utah to become a professor of biochemistry. In 1999, he moved to the MRC
Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge,
England.
In 2000, Ramakrishnan’s laboratory determined the atomic structure of the 30S ribosomal subunit and its complexes with ligands and antibiotics. This work has led to insights into how the ribosome
“reads” the genetic code, as well as into various aspects of antibiotic function. In 2006, his laboratory determined the atomic structure of the entire ribosome bound to its mRNA and tRNA substrates. His current work is focused on understanding the mechanistic role of the ribosome during various steps of the translation pathway. In the past, he has made contributions to chromatin structure and crystallographic methods. He is a
Fellow of the Royal Society and a Member of the
U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
Ramakrishnan received his B.S. degree from Baroda
University, India, in 1971 and his Ph.D. from Ohio
University in 1976.

Russell Marker
The Marker Lectures were established in 1984 through a gift from Russell Earl Marker, professor emeritus of chemistry, whose pioneering synthetic methods revolutionized the steroid hormone industry and opened the door on the current era of hormone therapies, including the birth-control pill.
Although probably best known for his contributions to steroid chemistry, Professor Marker also developed the octane rating system for gasoline at the Ethyl Corporation. Later, at Rockefeller
Institute, he developed the now well-known optical rotatory dispersion method for studying organic molecules.
In 1935, Professor Marker left the Rockefeller
Institute and joined the faculty at Penn State, where he immediately began research on steroids. In nine years at Penn State, he published 160 papers and developed a chemical synthetic technique that bears his name, the Marker Degradation. This technique is still used today in large-scale industrial production.
Application of the Marker Degradation enabled
Professor Marker to make his most dramatic contribution, the discovery of a general method for preparing all steroidal hormones--including progesterone, cortisone, and the birth control pill-from the Mexican Dioscorea plant. The technique converted progesterone from an expensive chemical rarity to the cheapest of all steroid hormones.
Professor Marker resigned from Penn State in 1944 and went to Mexico, the source of the yam he used as starting material in his synthesis of the steroidal hormones. Since no pharmaceutical firm wanted to get involved, he and two others founded Syntex, which spawned other companies, including Searle and Schering. However, within a year Marker left
Syntex to pursue other ventures.
A few years later, Professor Marker left chemical research to devote himself to commissioning
Mexican-made replicas of antique European silver works and Maya plaques.
At four international scientific symposiums held in
Mexico, Professor Marker received awards for his work. In addition, he was named an Honorary
Alumnus by Penn State and was given an honorary doctor of science degree by the University of
Maryland, which also established two annual chemistry lectureships in his honor. Syntex established the Russell Marker Faculty Fellowship at
Penn State to provide support for outstanding young faculty members.
The Marker endowment allows the Eberly College of Science to present annual Marker Lectures in astronomy and astrophysics, the chemical sciences, evolutionary biology, genetic engineering, the mathematical sciences, and the physical sciences.
2008/2009 RUSSELL MARKER LECTURES
IN GENETIC ENGINEERING SELECTION
COMMITTEE:
Drs. Arthur Lesk (Chair), Hasan Koc, and Melissa Rolls
This publication is available in alternative media on request.
Penn State encourages qualified persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact ________ at 814-___-
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U. Ed. SCI
September 15 and 16, 2008