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Gerty Cori
Cori in 1947
Born	Gertrude Theresa Radnitz (1896-08-15)August 15, 1896 Prague, Austria-Hungary
Died	October 26, 1957(1957-10-26) (aged 61) Glendale, Missouri, US
Citizenship	Austria-Hungary Czechoslovakia United States (naturalized)
Alma mater	Charles University
Known for	Carbohydrate metabolism The Cori cycle Identification of Glucose 1-phosphate
Spouse	Carl Ferdinand Cori ​(m. 1920)​
Children	1
Awards	Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1947) Garvan–Olin Medal (1948)
Scientific career
Fields	Biochemistry
Institutions	Washington University School of Medicine

Gerty Theresa Cori (née Radnitz; August 15, 1896 – October 26, 1957) was a Bohemian-Austrian and American biochemist who in 1947 was the third woman to win a Nobel Prize in science, and the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for her role in the "discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen".

Cori was born in Prague, the capital of Bohemia within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Growing up at a time when women were marginalized and allowed few educational opportunities, she gained admittance to medical school, where she met her future husband Carl Ferdinand Cori in an anatomy class. Upon their graduation in 1920, they married. Because of deteriorating conditions in Europe, the couple emigrated to the United States in 1922. Gerty Cori continued her early interest in medical research, collaborating in the laboratory with Carl. She published research coauthored with her husband, as well as publishing singly. Unlike her husband, she had difficulty securing research positions, and the ones she obtained provided meager pay. Her husband insisted on continuing their collaboration, though he was discouraged from doing so by the institutions that employed him.

Together with her husband Carl and Argentine physiologist Bernardo Houssay, Gerty Cori received the Nobel Prize in 1947 for the discovery of the mechanism by which glycogen—a starch made from glucose—is broken down in muscle tissue into lactic acid and then resynthesized in the body and stored as a source of energy (known as the Cori cycle). They also identified the important catalyzing compound, the Cori ester. The Coris were the third ever married couple to win the Nobel Prize. In 2004, both Gerty and Carl Cori were designated a National Historic Chemical Landmark in recognition of their work in clarifying carbohydrate metabolism.

In 1957, Gerty Cori died after a ten-year struggle with myelosclerosis. She remained active in the research laboratory until the end of her life. She received recognition for her achievements through multiple awards and honors.

Early life and education

Gerty Cori was born Gerty Theresa Radnitz into a Jewish family in Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (modern Czech Republic) in 1896. Her father, Otto Radnitz, was a chemist who became manager of sugar refineries after inventing a successful method for refining sugar. Her mother, Martha, a friend of Franz Kafka, was a culturally sophisticated woman. Gerty was tutored at home before enrolling in a lyceum for girls, and at the age of 16, she decided she wanted to be a medical doctor. Pursuing the study of science, Gerty learned that she lacked the prerequisites in Latin, physics, chemistry, and mathematics. Over the course of a year, she managed to study the equivalent of eight years of Latin, five years of science, and five years of mathematics.

Her uncle, a professor of pediatrics, encouraged her to attend medical school, so she studied for and passed the university entrance examination. She was admitted to the medical school of the Karl-Ferdinands-Universität in Prague in 1914, an unusual achievement for women at that time.

Marriage and early career

While studying, she met Carl Cori, who was immediately attracted to her charm, vitality, sense of humor, and her love of the outdoors and mountain climbing. Gerty and Carl had both entered medical school at 18 and both graduated in 1920. They married that same year. Gerty converted to Catholic Christianity, enabling her and Carl to marry in the Catholic Church. They moved to Vienna, capital of Austria, where Gerty spent the next two years at the Carolinen Children's Hospital, and her husband worked in a laboratory. While at the hospital, Gerty Cori worked on the pediatrics unit and conducted experiments in temperature regulation, comparing temperatures before and after thyroid treatment, and published papers on blood disorders.

Carl was drafted into the Austrian army and served during World War I. Life was difficult after the war, and Gerty developed dry eye caused by severe malnutrition due to food shortages. These problems, in conjunction with the increasing anti-Semitism, contributed to the Coris' decision to leave Europe.

Immigration to the United States

In 1922, the Coris both immigrated to the United States (Gerty six months after Carl because of difficulty in obtaining a position) to pursue medical research at what later became the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York. In 1928, they became naturalized citizens. The director of the institute threatened to dismiss Gerty if she did not cease collaborative research with her husband. She continued to work with Carl and was nevertheless kept on at the institute.

She was constantly in the laboratory, where we two worked alone. We washed our own laboratory glassware and she would occasionally complain bitterly to Carl about not having any dishwashing help. When she tired, she would retire to her small office adjoining the laboratory, where she would rest on a small cot. She smoked incessantly and dropped cigarette ashes constantly ...

Although the Coris were discouraged from working together at Roswell, they continued, specializing in investigating carbohydrate metabolism. They were particularly interested in how glucose is metabolized in the human body and the hormones that regulate this process. They published fifty papers while at Roswell. The lead author of each paper was the one who had done the most research. Gerty Cori published eleven articles as the sole author. In 1929, they proposed the theoretical cycle that later won them the Nobel Prize, the Cori cycle. The cycle describes how the human body uses chemical reactions to break some carbohydrates such as glycogen in muscle tissue into lactic acid, while synthesizing others.

Washington University

The Coris left Roswell in 1931 after publishing their work on carbohydrate metabolism. Several universities offered Carl a position but refused to hire Gerty. Gerty was informed during one university interview that it was considered "un-American" for a married couple to work together. Carl refused a position at the University at Buffalo because the school would not allow him to work with his wife.

In 1931, they moved to St. Louis, Missouri, when Washington University offered positions to both Carl and Gerty, although Gerty's rank and salary were much lower than her husband's. Despite her research experience, Gerty was only offered a position as a research associate at a salary one tenth of that received by her husband; she was warned that she might impede her husband's career. Washington University's Chancellor, Arthur Compton, made a special allowance for Gerty to hold a position there, ignoring the university's nepotism rules. Gerty waited thirteen years before she attained the same rank as her husband. In 1943, she was appointed associate professor of Research Biological Chemistry and Pharmacology. Months before she won the Nobel Prize, she was promoted to full professor, a post she held until her death in 1957.

While working at Washington University, they discovered an intermediate compound in frog muscles that enabled the breakdown of glycogen, called glucose 1-phosphate, later known as the Cori ester. They established the compound's structure, identified the enzyme phosphorylase that catalyzed its chemical formation, and deduced that the Cori ester is the beginning step in the conversion of the carbohydrate glycogen into glucose (breaking down energy stores into a form that can be used). It can also be the last step in the conversion of blood glucose to glycogen, as it is reversible. Gerty Cori also studied glycogen storage disease, identifying at least four forms, each related to a particular enzymatic defect. She was the first to show that a defect in an enzyme can cause a human genetic disease.

Gerty and Carl Cori collaborated on most of their work, including that which won the 1947 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen". They received one half the prize, the other half going to the Argentinian physiologist, Bernardo Houssay "for his discovery of the part played by the hormone of the anterior pituitary lobe in the metabolism of sugar". Their work helped clarify the mechanisms of carbohydrate metabolism, advancing understanding of the reversible conversion of sugars and starch, which proved crucial to the development of diabetic treatments.

Awards and recognition

In 1947, Gerty Cori became the third woman—and the first American woman—to win a Nobel Prize in science. Previously, Marie Curie had received two, and Irène Joliot-Curie won one. Cori was the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1953. Cori was the fourth woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences. She was appointed by President Harry S. Truman as board member of the National Science Foundation, a position she held until her death.

Gerty was a member of the American Society of Biological Chemists, the American Chemical Society and the American Philosophical Society. She and her husband were presented jointly with the Midwest Award (American Chemical Society) in 1946 and the Squibb Award in Endocrinology in 1947. In addition, Cori received the Garvan-Olin Medal (1948), the St. Louis Award (1948), the Sugar Research Prize (1950), the Borden Award (1951).

Despite rampant gender discrimination and nepotism rules, she never stopped pursuing her lifelong interest in medical research. Brilliant and quick-witted, Cori was a superb experimentalist as well as a perfectionist.

The twenty-five foot square laboratory shared by Cori and her husband at Washington University was deemed a National Historic Landmark by the American Chemical Society in 2004. Six scientists mentored by Cori and her husband went on to win Nobel Prizes, which is only surpassed by the number mentored by British physicist J.J. Thomson.

In 1949, she was awarded the Iota Sigma Pi National Honorary Member for her significant contribution. The crater Cori on the Moon is named after her, as is the Cori crater on Venus. She shares a star with her husband on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1998.

Cori was honored by a US Postal Service stamp in April 2008. The 41-cent stamp was reported by the Associated Press to have a printing error in the chemical formula for glucose-1-phosphate (Cori ester), but was distributed despite the error. Her description reads: "Biochemist Gerty Cori (1896–1957), in collaboration with her husband, Carl, made important discoveries—including a new derivative of glucose—that elucidated the steps of carbohydrate metabolism and contributed to the understanding and treatment of diabetes and other metabolic diseases. In 1947, the couple was awarded a half share of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine."

The US Department of Energy named the NERSC-8 supercomputer installed at Berkeley Lab in 2015/2016 after Cori. In November 2016, NERSC's Cori ranked 5th on the TOP500 list of world's most powerful high-performance computers.

Gerty is the more celebrated of the Coris because she is considered a pioneer woman of science. In her lifetime, however, she experienced much prejudice as a woman.

Final years

Just before winning the Nobel prize, while they were on a mountain climbing trip, the Coris learned that Gerty Cori was ill with myelosclerosis, a fatal disease of the bone marrow. During her years at the Institute for the Study of Malignant Disease, Gerty had worked with X-rays, studying their effects on the human body, which may have contributed to her illness. She struggled for ten years with the illness while continuing her scientific work; only in the final months did she let up. In 1957, she died in her home. Gerty was cremated and her ashes scattered. Later, her son erected a cenotaph for Gerty and Carl Cori in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.

She was survived by her husband and their only child, Tom Cori, who married the daughter of conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly.

Carl Cori remarried in 1960 to Anne Fitzgerald-Jones. The two later moved to Boston, where Carl taught at Harvard Medical School. He continued to work there until his death in 1984, aged 87.

See also

• List of female Nobel laureates
• List of Jewish Nobel laureates
• Timeline of women in science

References

1. "Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori (1896–1957) and Carl Ferdinand Cori (1896–1984) 1947". Smithsonian Institution Archives. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved July 23, 2013.
2. "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1947". Elsevier Publishing Company. 1964. Retrieved June 17, 2010.
3. "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1947".
4. Rachel, Swaby (2015). Headstrong : 52 women who changed science-- and the world (First ed.). New York. ISBN 9780553446791. OCLC 886483944.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
5. ^ "Carl and Gerti Cori and Carbohydrate Metabolism". American Chemical Society. Retrieved March 29, 2018.
6. ^ Shepley, Carol Ferring (2008). Movers and Shakers, Scalawags and Suffragettes: Tales from Bellefontaine Cemetery. St. Louis, MO: Missouri History Museum.
7. ^ Larner, Joseph (1992). "Gerty Theresa Cori". National Academy of Sciences. pp. 113, 124, 125. Retrieved June 17, 2010.
8. "Gertrude "Gerty" Cori". Archived from the original on November 10, 2012. Retrieved January 15, 2013.
9. "Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori".
10. ^ Chemical Heritage Foundation. "Flying, Hopping and Rolling". hemheritage.org. Archived from the original on June 20, 2010. Retrieved June 17, 2010.
11. ^ National Library of Medicine. "Dr. Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori". nih.gov. Retrieved June 17, 2010.
12. "Nobel Lectures – Physiology or Medicine 1942–1962". Elsevier Publishing Company. 1964. Retrieved June 17, 2010.
13. Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri. "Gerty Theresa Cori (1896–1957)". Bernard Becker Medical Library. Retrieved June 17, 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
14. ^ Washington University School of Medicine. "Gerty Theresa Cori (1896–1957)". Bernard Becker Medical Library. Retrieved June 24, 2010.
15. "Carl Ferdinand & Gerty Theresa Cori". nobel-winners.com. Retrieved June 17, 2010.
16. Rothenberg, Marc (2000). The history of science in the United States : an encyclopedia (. ed.). New York: Garland. ISBN 0815307624.
17. Smeltzer, Ronald K. (2013). Extraordinary Women in Science & Medicine: Four Centuries of Achievement. The Grolier Club.
18. "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1947". Nobelprize.org. Retrieved June 17, 2010.
19. "Facts on the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine". Nobelprize.org. Retrieved June 22, 2010.
20. "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter C" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved July 29, 2014.
21. Gardner, A. L. (1997). "Gerty Cori, Biochemist, 1896–1957" (PDF). Women Life Scientists: Past, Present, and Future – Connecting Role Models to the Classroom Curriculum. American Physiological Society. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 9, 2011. Retrieved June 24, 2010.
22. "Francis P. Garvan-John M. Olin Medal". American Chemistry Society. Archived from the original on February 24, 2012. Retrieved June 17, 2010.
23. Washington University School of Medicine. "Gerty Theresa Cori". Bernard Becker Medical Library. Retrieved June 17, 2010.
24. "PROFESSIONAL AWARDS". Iota Stigma Pi: National Honor Society for Women in Chemistry. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
25. "Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature". usgs.gov. Retrieved June 17, 2010.
26. "Cori House - Cori Crater - Extraterrestrial Locations on Waymarking.com". Waymarking.com. Retrieved February 7, 2014.
27. St. Louis Walk of Fame. "St. Louis Walk of Fame Inductees". stlouiswalkoffame.org. Archived from the original on October 31, 2012. Retrieved June 17, 2010.
28. National Women's Hall of Fame, Gerty Cori
29. Keim, Brandon (January 10, 2008). "U.S. Postal Service Gets Scientific With New Stamps". Wired. wired.com. Retrieved June 17, 2010.
30. Associated Press (January 15, 2008). "Stamp Honoring Biochemist Bears Error". Fox News. Archived from the original on January 19, 2008. Retrieved June 17, 2010.
31. United States Postal Service (March 6, 2008). "Four Legends of American Science Now on U.S. Postage Stamps". usps.com. Archived from the original on March 6, 2010. Retrieved June 17, 2010.
32. "NERSC-8 supercomputer". Archived from the original on November 26, 2022. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
33. "Cori – Cray XC40, Intel Xeon Phi 7250 68C 1.4GHz, Aries interconnect | TOP500 Supercomputer Sites". www.top500.org. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
34. "Nobels All Around". National Review. September 22, 2012. Retrieved September 23, 2012.
35. "Anne Cori". Retrieved September 23, 2012.

Further reading

• Exton, John H. (2013). Crucible of science : the story of the Cori Laboratory. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199861071.
• Ignotofsky, Rachel (2016). Women in science: 50 fearless pioneers who changed the world (1st ed.). New York: Ten Speed Press. ISBN 9781607749769.

• Resources in your library
• Resources in other libraries

• Resources in your library
• Resources in other libraries

• Leroy, Francis (2003). A century of Nobel Prizes recipients: chemistry, physics, and medicine. CRC Press. ISBN 0-8247-0876-8.
• McGrayne, Sharon Bertsch (2001). Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles and Momentous Discoveries. National Academy Press. ISBN 0-309-07270-0.
• Opfell, Olga S (1978). The Lady Laureates: Women Who Have Won the Nobel Prize. Metuchen, N.J. & London: Scarecrow Press, Inc. pp. 183–193. ISBN 0810811618.
• Reynolds, Moira Davison (2004). American women scientists: 23 inspiring biographies, 1900–2000. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. ISBN 0786421614.

External links

• Carl and Gerti Cori and Carbohydrate Metabolism from American Chemical Society National Historic Chemical Landmarks
• "Glories of the Human Mind" by Gerty Cori
• Bernardo A. Houssay Memorial to Gerty Theresa Cori
• Gerty Cori Memorabilia
• Gerty Cori on Nobelprize.org including the Nobel Lecture on December 11, 1947 Polysaccharide Phosphorylase
• Joseph Larner, "Gerty Theresa Cori", National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir (1992)

v t e Laureates of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
1901–1925	1901: Emil Behring 1902: Ronald Ross 1903: Niels Finsen 1904: Ivan Pavlov 1905: Robert Koch 1906: Camillo Golgi / Santiago Ramón y Cajal 1907: Alphonse Laveran 1908: Élie Metchnikoff / Paul Ehrlich 1909: Emil Kocher 1910: Albrecht Kossel 1911: Allvar Gullstrand 1912: Alexis Carrel 1913: Charles Richet 1914: Róbert Bárány 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919: Jules Bordet 1920: August Krogh 1921 1922: Archibald Hill / Otto Meyerhof 1923: Frederick Banting / John Macleod 1924: Willem Einthoven 1925
1926–1950	1926: Johannes Fibiger 1927: Julius Wagner-Jauregg 1928: Charles Nicolle 1929: Christiaan Eijkman / Frederick Gowland Hopkins 1930: Karl Landsteiner 1931: Otto Warburg 1932: Charles Scott Sherrington / Edgar Adrian 1933: Thomas Morgan 1934: George Whipple / George Minot / William Murphy 1935: Hans Spemann 1936: Henry Dale / Otto Loewi 1937: Albert Szent-Györgyi 1938: Corneille Heymans 1939: Gerhard Domagk 1940 1941 1942 1943: Henrik Dam / Edward Doisy 1944: Joseph Erlanger / Herbert Gasser 1945: Alexander Fleming / Ernst Chain / Howard Florey 1946: Hermann Muller 1947: Carl Cori / Gerty Cori / Bernardo Houssay 1948: Paul Müller 1949: Walter Hess / António Egas Moniz 1950: Edward Kendall / Tadeusz Reichstein / Philip Hench
1951–1975	1951: Max Theiler 1952: Selman Waksman 1953: Hans Krebs / Fritz Lipmann 1954: John Enders / Thomas Weller / Frederick Robbins 1955: Hugo Theorell 1956: André Cournand / Werner Forssmann / Dickinson W. Richards 1957: Daniel Bovet 1958: George Beadle / Edward Tatum / Joshua Lederberg 1959: Severo Ochoa / Arthur Kornberg 1960: Frank Burnet / Peter Medawar 1961: Georg von Békésy 1962: Francis Crick / James Watson / Maurice Wilkins 1963: John Eccles / Alan Hodgkin / Andrew Huxley 1964: Konrad Bloch / Feodor Lynen 1965: François Jacob / André Lwoff / Jacques Monod 1966: Francis Rous / Charles B. Huggins 1967: Ragnar Granit / Haldan Hartline / George Wald 1968: Robert W. Holley / Har Khorana / Marshall Nirenberg 1969: Max Delbrück / Alfred Hershey / Salvador Luria 1970: Bernard Katz / Ulf von Euler / Julius Axelrod 1971: Earl Sutherland Jr. 1972: Gerald Edelman / Rodney Porter 1973: Karl von Frisch / Konrad Lorenz / Nikolaas Tinbergen 1974: Albert Claude / Christian de Duve / George Palade 1975: David Baltimore / Renato Dulbecco / Howard Temin
1976–2000	1976: Baruch Blumberg / Daniel Gajdusek 1977: Roger Guillemin / Andrew Schally / Rosalyn Yalow 1978: Werner Arber / Daniel Nathans / Hamilton O. Smith 1979: Allan Cormack / Godfrey Hounsfield 1980: Baruj Benacerraf / Jean Dausset / George Snell 1981: Roger Sperry / David H. Hubel / Torsten Wiesel 1982: Sune Bergström / Bengt I. Samuelsson / John Vane 1983: Barbara McClintock 1984: Niels Jerne / Georges Köhler / César Milstein 1985: Michael Brown / Joseph L. Goldstein 1986: Stanley Cohen / Rita Levi-Montalcini 1987: Susumu Tonegawa 1988: James W. Black / Gertrude B. Elion / George H. Hitchings 1989: J. Michael Bishop / Harold E. Varmus 1990: Joseph Murray / E. Donnall Thomas 1991: Erwin Neher / Bert Sakmann 1992: Edmond Fischer / Edwin G. Krebs 1993: Richard J. Roberts / Phillip Sharp 1994: Alfred G. Gilman / Martin Rodbell 1995: Edward B. Lewis / Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard / Eric F. Wieschaus 1996: Peter C. Doherty / Rolf M. Zinkernagel 1997: Stanley B. Prusiner 1998: Robert F. Furchgott / Louis Ignarro / Ferid Murad 1999: Günter Blobel 2000: Arvid Carlsson / Paul Greengard / Eric Kandel
2001–present	2001: Leland H. Hartwell / Tim Hunt / Paul Nurse 2002: Sydney Brenner / H. Robert Horvitz / John E. Sulston 2003: Paul Lauterbur / Peter Mansfield 2004: Richard Axel / Linda B. Buck 2005: Barry Marshall / Robin Warren 2006: Andrew Fire / Craig Mello 2007: Mario Capecchi / Martin Evans / Oliver Smithies 2008: Harald zur Hausen / Luc Montagnier / Françoise Barré-Sinoussi 2009: Elizabeth Blackburn / Carol W. Greider / Jack W. Szostak 2010: Robert G. Edwards 2011: Bruce Beutler / Jules A. Hoffmann / Ralph M. Steinman (posthumously) 2012: John Gurdon / Shinya Yamanaka 2013: James Rothman / Randy Schekman / Thomas C. Südhof 2014: John O'Keefe / May-Britt Moser / Edvard Moser 2015: William C. Campbell / Satoshi Ōmura / Tu Youyou 2016: Yoshinori Ohsumi 2017: Jeffrey C. Hall / Michael Rosbash / Michael W. Young 2018: James P. Allison / Tasuku Honjo 2019: Gregg L. Semenza / Peter J. Ratcliffe / William Kaelin Jr. 2020: Harvey J. Alter / Michael Houghton / Charles M. Rice 2021: David Julius / Ardem Patapoutian 2022: Svante Pääbo 2023: Katalin Karikó / Drew Weissman 2024: Victor Ambros / Gary Ruvkun

• 1896 births
• 1957 deaths
• Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine
• Nobel laureates from Austria-Hungary
• American Nobel laureates
• Women Nobel laureates
• Austrian emigrants to the United States
• American women biochemists
• Jews from Austria-Hungary
• Jewish American scientists
• Jewish chemists
• Jewish women scientists
• American people of Czech-Jewish descent
• Scientists from Prague
• People from the Kingdom of Bohemia
• Charles University alumni
• Scientists from Buffalo, New York
• Washington University in St. Louis faculty
• Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism
• American Roman Catholics
• Recipients of the Garvan–Olin Medal
• Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
• Women physiologists
• American physiologists
• Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• 20th-century American women scientists
• 20th-century American biochemists
• Austrian Nobel laureates
• Sugar technologists