Gerty Cori

Gerty Theresa Cori (née Radnitz ) ( born August 15, 1896 in Prague, † October 26, 1957 in St. Louis, Missouri) was a Bohemian- American biochemist and Nobel Prize winner.

Life

Gerty Cori was the eldest daughter of Martha and Otto Radnitz. She studied medicine from 1914 to 1920 at the German Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague. During her studies she became friends with Carl Ferdinand Cori, she in 1920, after graduation, got married. As Carl and Gerty more interested in the basic medical research than for the medical practice. Only two years she practiced in the Carolinas Children's Hospital in Vienna.

1922 Carl and Gerty Cori emigrated to the USA and received American citizenship in 1928. While Gerty and Carl always searched together, at first only made it an academic career. He was even offered a professorship at a university on the condition that his wife no longer work with him together.

From 1931 to Carl headed the Pharmacology Department of the University in St. Louis and Gerty worked as his research assistant. However, they did not get a salary for it. In 1936 their son Thomas was born. Soon, the couple moved to the Biochemistry Department.

Succeeded in 1936 Cori, glucose -1-phosphate ( referred to as " Cori ester " ), and to identify in the sequence, and isolating the phosphorylase. The discovery of the Coris enabled the enzymatic synthesis of glycogen into starch in vitro. 1940 formulated the Coris in St. Louis a metabolic cycle, the " Cori cycle " where unoxidized lactic acid from the muscle diffuses into the blood and transported to the liver where it is converted into glycogen. In 1947 Gerty and Carl Cori jointly received Bernardo Alberto Houssay with the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on the sugar metabolism. Gerty Cori was thus the third woman and first American woman who received a Nobel Prize in the disciplines of physics, chemistry or medicine / physiology. In the same year she was given a professorship of biochemistry. She was also made ​​a member of the American Societies for chemistry, endocrinology and ( honorary ) philosophy.

In the same year was her myelofibrosis, a rare disease of the bone marrow detected. Despite her serious illness, she worked until her death at age 61 on. Gerty Cori died on 26 October 1957.