Gerty Cori

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gerty Cori (1947)
The formula alpha D-glucose-1-phosphate, "Cori-Ester"

Gerty Theresa Cori (nee Radnitz) (born August 15, 1896 in Prague , † October 26, 1957 in St. Louis , Missouri ) was an Austrian-American biochemist and Nobel Prize winner . She was the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology for her contribution to the discovery of glycogen metabolism . With the help of her husband Carl Ferdinand Cori and the Argentine physiologist Bernardo Alberto Houssay , she described the cycle from glycogen breakdown to lactic acid in skeletal muscle and glucose build-up in the liver, also known as the Cori cycle .

Life in Europe

Gerty Cori was the eldest of three daughters of Martha (née Neustadtl) and Otto Radnitz, manager of a sugar factory. Until she started school at the age of ten, she and her sisters received private tuition. In order to pursue her interest in medicine, she acquired the necessary specialist knowledge in Latin, physics, chemistry and mathematics within a year. After graduating in 1914, she studied medicine at the German University in Prague from 1914 to 1920 . During her studies , she became friends with her fellow student Carl Ferdinand Cori . After completing their studies together and Gerty's conversion from Judaism to Catholicism, the two married in 1920 and moved to Vienna . There Gerty worked for two years at the Karolinen Children's Hospital as an assistant doctor and researched the role of the thyroid gland in regulating body temperature.

Carl was drafted during the First World War. The poor food situation and the increasing anti-Semitism in Vienna after the war encouraged the Coris to emigrate.

Living and Researching in the USA

In 1922 Carl Cori emigrated to the USA . Gerty didn't follow suit until six months later due to difficulty finding a job. Both received positions at the Institute for the Study of Malignant Diseases (now Roswell Park Cancer Institute) in Buffalo, New York . In 1928 they received American citizenship . Although Gerty and Carl always researched together, only he made an academic career for the time being. He was even offered a professorship at a university on the condition that his wife no longer worked with him.

During their time at the Roswell Institute, Gerty and Carl Cori specialized in carbohydrate metabolism, in particular the metabolism of glucose in the human body and the hormones involved in it . Gerty published eleven individual scientific articles. In 1929, the two presented the theory of the Cori cycle , for which they later received the Nobel Prize .

From 1931 onwards, Carl headed the Pharmacology Department at the University of St. Louis, and Gerty served as its unpaid research assistant. Their son Thomas was born in 1936. Soon the couple moved to the biochemistry department.

In 1936 the Coris succeeded in identifying and isolating glucose-1-phosphate (called "Cori-Ester") and subsequently phosphorylase. This discovery enabled the enzymatic synthesis of glycogen in starch in vitro . In 1940 the Coris in St. Louis formulated a metabolic cycle , the " Cori cycle ", whereby non-oxidized lactic acid diffuses from the muscle into the blood, is transported to the liver and is converted into glycogen there. In 1947, Gerty and Carl Cori, together with Bernardo Alberto Houssay, received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on the sugar metabolism. Gerty Cori was the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize in Medicine and at the same time the third woman and first US American to receive a Nobel Prize in the disciplines of physics, chemistry or medicine / physiology. In the same year she received a professorship for biochemistry. In 1948 she was inducted into both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society and received the Garvan-Olin Medal . In 1953 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . After Gerty Cori, a lunar crater of the southern lunar hemisphere ( lunar crater Cori ) and 1979 a Venus crater of the northern hemisphere ( Venus crater Cori ) were named. The asteroid (6175) Cori was named in 2000 after the biochemist couple Gerty and Carl Ferdinand Cori (1896–1984).

In 1948 she was diagnosed with myelofibrosis , a rare disease of the bone marrow . Despite her serious illness, she continued to work on research into glycogen storage diseases until her death at the age of 61 . Gerty Cori died on October 26, 1957.

See also

literature

  • Susanne Paulsen : The veil over the mystery of nature seems to float up . In: Charlotte Kerner : Not only Madame Curie - women who got the Nobel Prize. Beltz Verlag, Weinheim / Basel 1999, ISBN 3-407-80862-3 .
  • Johannes Oehme: pioneers of paediatrics . Topics of paediatrics, volume 7. Hansisches Verlagkontor Lübeck, 1993, p. 22, ISBN 3-87 302-076-9
  • Antonius Lux (ed.): Great women of world history. A thousand biographies in words and pictures . Sebastian Lux Verlag , Munich 1963, OCLC 30327520 , p. 118; New edition: Erwin Angermayer (Ed.): Great women of world history: a thousand biographies in words and pictures. Kaiser, Klagenfurt 1998, ISBN 3-7043-3064-7 .

Web links

Commons : Gerty Cori  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Death report on holocaust.cz
  2. ^ Shepley, Carol Ferring, 1949-: Movers and shakers, scalawags and suffragettes: tales from Bellefontaine Cemetery . Missouri History Museum, 2008, ISBN 978-1-883982-65-2 ( worldcat.org [accessed December 12, 2019]).
  3. ^ Carl and Gerty Cori and Carbohydrate Metabolism. Retrieved December 12, 2019 .
  4. ^ Shepley, Carol Ferring, 1949-: Movers and shakers, scalawags and suffragettes: tales from Bellefontaine Cemetery . Missouri History Museum, 2008, ISBN 978-1-883982-65-2 ( worldcat.org [accessed December 12, 2019]).
  5. ^ Women in Chemistry: Gerty Cori. June 20, 2010, accessed December 12, 2019 .
  6. ^ Changing the Face of Medicine | Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori. Retrieved December 12, 2019 .
  7. ^ Changing the Face of Medicine | Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori. Retrieved December 12, 2019 .
  8. ^ Gerty Cori, Washington University. National Academy of Sciences, Deceased Members. Retrieved July 18, 2014.
  9. ^ Member History: Gerty T. Cori. American Philosophical Society, accessed June 28, 2018 .
  10. ^ Members of the American Academy. Listed by election year, 1950-1999 ( [1] ). Page 4. Retrieved September 23, 2015
  11. ^ Lunar crater Cori in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature of the IAU (WGPSN) / USGS
  12. ^ Venus crater Cori in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature of the IAU (WGPSN) / USGS
personal data
SURNAME Cori, Gerty
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cori, Gerty Theresa (full name); Radnitz, Gerty Theresa (maiden name); Cori, Gerti
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bohemian-American biochemist, Nobel Prize winner
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Prague
DATE OF DEATH October 26, 1957
Place of death St. Louis , Missouri