Venki Ramakrishnan

Death is so frightening that we usually repress the thought of it for the rest of our lives. Yet it is unstoppable – at least until now. We are currently experiencing a veritable revolution in biological research: we now understand why some species live longer than others. Can we use this knowledge to overcome diseases or even death in the future? Or does death perhaps even have a biological purpose?
Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan presents the latest breakthroughs in biological research and explains how genetic modifications to the genome can extend lifespan – and whether we should play with death.

Venkatraman “Venki” Ramakrishnan studied physics and biology, received his doctorate from Ohio University and conducted research at Yale University and Brookhaven National Laboratory, among others. Since 1999 he has worked in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the Medical Research Council, Cambridge. In 2009, Venki Ramakrishnan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with Ada Yonath and Thomas A. Seitz. Ramakrishnan was President of the Royal Society until 2022.

Language: English