Venkatraman Ramakrishnan of the Medical Research Center(MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, shares the prize with Thomas A. Steitz of Yale University in New Haven, USA, and Ada E. Yonath of Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel for their research in the structure and function of the ribosome, a large complex molecule which can be seen as the factory for the production of proteins, the latter being the molecular building blocks determining our life processes. All three recipients of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry published papers on their award-winning work based on data collected at Argonne National Laboratory, which is under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

For determination of the three-dimensional structure of these large molecules, researchers generally employ a technique known as X-ray crystallography: An X-ray beam passes through a crystal composed of the molecules under investigation and a detector placed behind the sample records a characteristic pattern. A detailed analysis of this diffraction pattern allows scientists to determine the positions of the atoms within the molecule. The best diffraction results are generally achieved at so-called third-generation synchrotron radiation sources. It operates three advanced protein crystallography beam lines which provide optimal conditions for structure determinations of large bio-molecules such as the ribosome.

The ribosome works as a protein factory in all organisms from humans to bacteria. As genetic material carrying the code for the protein sequence - messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) - passes through the ribosome, transfer RNAs bring a chain of amino acids to the ribosome, creating a protein, which in turn facilitates the vast majority of biochemical processes within the organism.

According to Andrzej Joachimiak, Argonne biophysicist who heads the laboratory's Structural Biology Center (SBC), the improved knowledge of the structure and function of the ribosome -- especially in bacteria -- has opened up a new avenue of medical research as scientists try to identify antibiotics that can interfere with bacterial protein synthesis. He also mentioned that "This is one of the most important processes that occurs within the cell, and the work done at Argonne provided one of the first opportunities for scientists to truly look 'under the hood' at the biochemical mechanisms that underpin it". Argonne is also managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. DOC 's Office of Science.

Apart from collecting data at Argonne National Laboratory, Steitz and Ramakrishnan also performed studies at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York and the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California; Yonath and Ramakrishnan also carried out experiments at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France. Although most of the Argonne Nobel-related work was performed at the SBC's beamline at the APS, Steitz and Yonath also used two other APS beamlines: GMCA-CAT and BIOCARS. Yonath is also a member of the SBC advisory committee.