G.N. Ramachandran | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1922-10-08)8 October 1922 |
| Died | 7 April 2001(2001-04-07) (aged 78) Chennai, India |
| Alma mater | University of Madras (BSc,MSc,D.Sc) University of Cambridge (PhD) |
| Known for | Ramachandran plot |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Biophysics |
| Institutions | St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli Madras University Indian Institute of Science Cavendish Laboratory |
| Doctoral advisor | C V Raman |
Gopalasamudram Narayanan Ramachandran, orG. N. Ramachandran,FRS (8 October 1922 – 7 April 2001)[1] was an Indianphysicist who was known for his work that led to his creation of theRamachandran plot for understandingpeptide structure. He was the first to propose a triple-helical model for the structure ofcollagen.[1] He subsequently went on to make other major contributions inbiology andphysics.
Ramachandran was born on 8 October 1922, inErnakulam,Kingdom of Cochin, toTamil parents.[2] He completed his BSc honours in Physics fromSt Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli in 1939.[3][4] He joined theIndian Institute of Science,Bangalore in 1942 in the Electrical Engineering Department. Quickly realising his interest in physics, he switched to the Department of Physics to complete his master's and doctoral thesis under the supervision of Nobel laureateC. V. Raman. In 1942, he received a master's degree inphysics fromMadras University with his thesis submitted from Bangalore (he did not attend any Madras college at that time). He subsequently received hisD.Sc. degree in 1947.[5] Here he mostly studiedcrystal physics andcrystal optics. During his studies he created an X-ray focusing mirror for theX-ray microscope. The resulting field of crystal topography is used in studies involvingcrystal growth andsolid-statereactivity.[6]
Ramachandran then spent two years (1947–1949) at theCavendish Laboratory inCambridge,[1] where he earned his PhD for 'studies onX-ray diffuse scattering and its application to determination of elastic constants' under the direction of William Alfred Wooster, a leading crystallography expert.[6]
After completing his PhD, he returned to theIndian Institute of Science,Bangalore,India in 1949 as an assistant professor of physics.[4] In 1952, he moved toMadras University as professor and head of the Department of Physics where he continued his work on crystal physics.[4] His interest, however, shifted to the structure of biologicalmacromolecules. UsingX-ray diffraction Ramachandran along withGopinath Kartha proposed and published the triplehelical structure ofcollagen in 1954 in the journalNature, drawing worldwide scientific attention to the "Madras group".[7]
At Madras University, Professor Ramachandran was the favourite of the famous vice-chancellor and celebrated doctor and medical scientist, Sir Arcot Laksmanaswamy Mudaliar. Wanting to tackle problems at a more fundamental level, Ramachandran decided to use this information to examine the variouspolypeptideconformations then known and also to develop a good 'yardstick' that could be used for examining and assessing any structure in general, but peptides in particular. The result which emerged from these calculations in 1962, – now commonly known as theRamachandran plot – was published in theJournal of Molecular Biology in 1963 and has become an essential tool in the field ofprotein conformation.[8] When it was first calculated, crystal structures had barely been obtained for any protein. From the mid-1960s onward, Ramachandran continued studying crystallography, including the conformation of peptides including types ofβ-turns, conformation of prolyl residues, cis-peptide units, occurrence and need for non-planarity of the peptides,NMRcoupling constants and peptides containing L and Dresidues, among other tops.[6]
He was awarded the prestigiousJawarharlal Nehru Fellowship in 1968 for research onProtein and Polypeptide Conformation; he was one of its first recipients.[9] Ramachandran can be credited for bringing together into the one field ofmolecular biophysics the then disparate fields ofX-ray crystallography,peptide synthesis, NMR and other optical studies, and physico-chemical experimentation. In 1970, he founded the Molecular Biophysics Unit at theIndian Institute of Science which was later known as theCentre of Advanced Study in Biophysics.[1]
Ramachandran and A.V. Lakshminarayanan developed convolution-backprojection algorithms which greatly improved the quality and practicality of results obtainable by x-ray tomography. Compared to previously used methods, their algorithms considerably reduced computer processing time for image reconstruction, as well as providing more numerically accurate images. As a result, commercial manufacturers of x-ray tomographic scanners started building systems capable of reconstructing high resolution images that were almost photographically perfect. In 1971, they published their research inPNAS.[10]
In 1981, Ramachandran became a founding member of theWorld Cultural Council.[11]
Notable awards that Ramachandran received include theShanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award for Physics in India (1961) and the Fellowship of theRoyal Society of London. In 1999, theInternational Union of Crystallography honoured him with theEwald Prize for his 'outstanding contributions to crystallography'. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize as well for his fundamental contributions in protein structure and function.[6]
Ramachandran was devastated by the death of his wife Rajalakshmi in 1998 and his health gradually deteriorated. During the last few years of his life, he suffered a stroke and was affected byParkinson's disease.[1] Ramachandran died on 7 April 2001, aged 78, inChennai.[6]
Each year, theCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) awards the "G N Ramachandran Gold Medal for Excellence in Biological Sciences & Technology" in his memory for work in Biological Sciences & Technology.[12]
| Key concepts |
|  | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Characterisation | ||||||||||||||
| Algorithms | ||||||||||||||
| Software | ||||||||||||||
| Databases | ||||||||||||||
| Journals | ||||||||||||||
| Awards | ||||||||||||||
| History |
| |||||||||||||
| Organisation |
| |||||||||||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
