Gerty Theresa Cori (aug 15, 1896 – oct 26, 1957)

Description:

Gerty Theresa Cori (August 15, 1896 – October 26, 1957 AD), Biochemist

Life:
Born Gerty Theresa Radnitz, Cori was an Austro-Hungarian-American biochemist. Cori was homeschooled until she was 10, when she went to a girls preparatory school until the age of 12. She then went to school at the Tetschen Real Gymnasium until she graduated in 1914. Cori was admitted to the German university of Prague to go to medical school where she met her husband Carl Ferdinand Cori. The two married after graduating in 1920 and moved to the United States two years later because the conditions in Europe were deteriorating.

Contribution to Science:
Cori was the first woman to be awarded the Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine for her work in the "discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen." As a young scientist, she often had trouble securing jobs in comparison to her husband and fellow scientist Carl Cori. The two often collaborated. They took up positions at the New York State Institute for the Study of Malignant Diseases (now Roswell Park). Their collaborative work focused on carbohydrate metabolism and in vivo and its hormonal regulation. She also published a series of papers alone about the effects of X-rays on skin and the metabolism of body organs. As a result of her research, she developed myelosclerosis in 1947, a deadly disease of the bone marrow to which her research likely contributed. During this time, the Coris proposed the Cori cycle, which later won them the Nobel Prize in this same year she was diagnosed. The cycle describes how the human body breaks down some carbohydrates to lactic acid, and synthesizes others.
After this work, the Coris moved to Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where they discovered glucose 1-phosphate, an intermediate in frog muscles that enabled the breakdown of glycogen. This molecule is also called the Cori ester. They established its structure, the enzyme that causes its formation, and showed that it was the initial step to breaking down glycogen to glucose. It is also the last step in the conversion of glucose to glycogen, as this step is reversible.

Death:
She continued her scientific work while struggling with her illness before finally succumbing in 1957 in her home.

Added to timeline:

Date: