Nobel Prize Winner: AI’s Impact On Drug Discovery And Biology | Venki Ramakrishnan

Venki Ramakrishnan (Molecular biologist, Nobel Prize): "The experimental part [of drug discovery] is always going to be the bottleneck."

Recent headlines about using AI to speed up drug discovery made me curious about what that looks like and where it is today. So I flew to the UK to interview Venki Ramakrishnan who is on the scientific advisory board of Demis Hassabis' Isomorphic Labs.

He has described himself as a "failed physicist" starting originally with a physics PhD who changed fields because he felt his work was incremental. After pivoting into molecular biology without a degree he discovered the field of work that eventually led to his Nobel prize.

So aside from drug discovery, I also asked him about how AI is impacting the field of biology, how biology compares to physics, and the politics behind the Nobel prize.

• My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/
• The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done

Podcast links:

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1q0zA21AkY
• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835
• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/e074-venki-ramakrishnan

Thank you to this episode's sponsor for supporting my work:

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro
(00:43) How drugs are designed
(04:54) Why drug testing remains difficult
(07:02) How AI will impact the field of biology
(10:35) Switching from physics to biology
(15:00) How to choose research problems that matter
(23:19) Did lacking a credential hurt his career
(26:50) Physics vs biology
(33:21) Why physicists succeed in other fields
(35:10) The politics of the Nobel Prize
(38:37) Top scientific book recommendations
(40:05) Advice for young people
(41:43) Outro

Where to find Venki:

• Personal website (MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology): https://mrclmb.ac.uk/research-leaders/venki-ramakrishnan/
• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=&user=oTI5BjIAAAAJ
• Royal Society: https://royalsociety.org/people/venki-ramakrishnan-12139/?page=43
• Nobel Prize: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2009/ramakrishnan/biographical/
• Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venki_Ramakrishnan

Where to find Ryan:

• Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/
• X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/
• Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

Referenced in this episode:

• Isomorphic Labs: https://www.isomorphiclabs.com/
• AlphaFold: https://deepmind.google/science/alphafold/
• AlphaGenome: https://deepmind.google/blog/alphagenome-ai-for-better-understanding-the-genome/
• Neutron-Scattering Studies of the Ribosome (Scientific American, 1976): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/neutron-scattering-studies-of-the-r/
• Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: https://wwnorton.com/books/Surely-Youre-Joking-Mr-Feynman/
• The Double Helix: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Double-Helix/James-D-Watson/9780743216302