An American biochemist of Czech origin, Gerty Cori was the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1947, which she shared with her husband Carl Cori. Her work on glycogen metabolism laid the foundations of modern biochemistry.
Gerty Cori(1896 — 1957)
Gerty Theresa Cori
États-Unis, Tchécoslovaquie, Cisleithanie
8 min read
Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- 1896: born in Prague (Austro-Hungarian Empire)
- 1920: earned her medical doctorate in Prague, where she met Carl Cori
- 1929: described the Cori cycle, the mechanism by which glucose is converted into glycogen
- 1947: first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- 1957: died in St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Works & Achievements
Gerty and Carl Cori describe the mechanism by which muscle glycogen is broken down into lactic acid, carried by the blood to the liver, and then reconverted into glycogen. This fundamental cycle explains how the body regulates energy both at rest and during physical exertion.
Discovery of a key chemical intermediate in glycogen metabolism, named the "Cori ester" in their honor. This molecule lies at the heart of the chain of enzymatic reactions that allow the body to mobilize its sugar reserves.
Gerty Cori succeeded in obtaining phosphorylase in crystalline form — a technical feat that made it possible to study its structure and mechanism of action in precise detail. This breakthrough was decisive in understanding how the body releases energy stored in glycogen.
Scientific address delivered at the Nobel Academy in Stockholm, synthesizing twenty years of discoveries on glycogen metabolism and opening the way for biochemical study of hereditary metabolic diseases.
In her final years, Gerty Cori identified and classified several hereditary diseases caused by enzyme deficiencies in glycogen metabolism, thereby founding the medical biochemistry of storage diseases and foreshadowing modern medical genetics.
Anecdotes
When Gerty and Carl Cori were searching for their first jobs in the United States in the 1920s, academic institutions regularly discouraged them from working together, fearing that their marriage would undermine scientific objectivity. At Washington University in St. Louis, Gerty was hired as a mere research assistant at a salary several times lower than her husband's, despite having equivalent scientific abilities.
The Cori couple developed such a close and complementary working method that their colleagues nicknamed them “the Cori team.” Carl often planned experiments in broad strokes, but it was Gerty who carried out the most delicate procedures: she was the one who succeeded in crystallizing glycogen phosphorylase in 1943, a technical feat that astonished the international biochemical community.
When Gerty Cori learned in 1947 that she was to receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, she was already suffering from myelosclerosis, a rare bone marrow disease likely contracted through repeated radiation exposure during her early years of research. Yet she took the stage in Stockholm with dignity, becoming the first woman to receive this distinction in that category.
Despite the illness that was gradually weakening her body, Gerty Cori continued to work in her laboratory almost until her death in 1957. She wrote her final articles on glycogen storage diseases from her chair, deeply inspiring her students with her refusal to surrender to physical suffering.
Before entering the medical school in Prague, Gerty had to pass a proficiency examination in Latin and natural sciences — subjects she had not had the opportunity to study at her girls’ school. She prepared for the exam in just a few months, passed it brilliantly, and enrolled in the faculty where she met Carl Cori, her future husband and lifelong scientific partner.
Primary Sources
The present experiments show that lactic acid formed in the muscles during exercise is carried by the blood to the liver, where it is resynthesized into glycogen. This cycle between lactic acid and glycogen constitutes the main pathway by which carbohydrate is made available for muscular work.
Glucose-1-phosphoric acid has been isolated as an intermediate product in the enzymatic breakdown and synthesis of glycogen. The compound, formed through the action of phosphorylase on glycogen in the presence of inorganic phosphate, can be reconverted into glycogen by the same enzyme.
Muscle phosphorylase has been obtained in crystalline form. The crystals retain full enzymatic activity, catalyzing the reversible phosphorolysis of glycogen to glucose-1-phosphate. Two interconvertible forms of the enzyme, phosphorylase a and phosphorylase b, have been distinguished.
The elucidation of the enzymatic steps of glycogen degradation has opened a new approach to the study of inherited metabolic diseases. Several types of glycogen storage disease can now be explained as the result of a specific enzymatic deficiency, each type being associated with an accumulation of glycogen of normal or abnormal structure.
Six types of glycogen storage disease are now recognized, each characterized by a specific enzymatic defect. The recognition of these diseases as inborn errors of metabolism opens the possibility of a rational biochemical classification of hereditary diseases.
Key Places
Gerty Cori's birthplace, where she grew up in a cultivated Jewish family and studied medicine at the German University in Prague. It was here that she met Carl Cori, her future husband and lifelong scientific collaborator.
The Cori couple's first American position after emigrating in 1922, where Gerty worked as an assistant in the pathology department. It was here that they began their first joint research into carbohydrate metabolism.
The primary setting of Gerty Cori's scientific career from 1931 onward, where she made all her major discoveries about glycogen. She was not granted a tenured professorship until 1947, after receiving the Nobel Prize.
The city where Gerty Cori received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on December 10, 1947, delivering a widely noted scientific lecture on enzymatic diseases of glycogen.
Typical Objects
An essential instrument for separating cellular components and isolating enzymes from muscle or liver tissue. Gerty Cori used it daily to purify glycogen phosphorylase in preparation for crystallization.
A device that measures the absorption of light by a solution to quantify enzymatic activity. In the 1940s, it was central to the Coris' laboratory for tracking glycogen breakdown reactions in real time.
The researcher's fundamental tool, in which Gerty meticulously recorded every protocol, result, and hypothesis. Her notebooks bear witness to a rigor and organizational discipline that her colleagues unanimously admired.
Precision glassware used for enzymatic assays and chemical titrations. Gerty Cori was renowned in her laboratory for her exceptional dexterity and accuracy when working with very small volumes.
A critical piece of equipment for storing tissue extracts and isolated enzymes at low temperatures, since they lose their activity rapidly. Cold storage was essential throughout the lengthy phosphorylase purification procedures.
A device that maintains samples at a precise, constant temperature during enzymatic reactions. Gerty used it to carry out glycogen phosphorolysis experiments under strictly controlled conditions.
School Curriculum
Vocabulary & Tags
Key Vocabulary
Tags
Daily Life
Morning
Gerty Cori arrived at her Washington University laboratory as early as 7:30 a.m., before most of her colleagues. She began her day by reviewing the results of experiments started the previous day, recording them meticulously in her notebook, then preparing the enzymatic solutions needed for the day's procedures.
Afternoon
Afternoons were devoted to the most delicate experiments, particularly the isolation and purification of enzymes, which demanded precision and sustained concentration. She worked in close collaboration with Carl, sharing his hypotheses while maintaining her own autonomy in conducting the manipulations.
Evening
In the evenings, Gerty read the latest biochemical publications from American and European journals, annotated articles, and drafted her own manuscripts with a clarity widely recognized in the scientific community. Family dinners with Carl often extended the day's scientific discussions well into the night.
Food
Gerty Cori ate simply, faithful to the Central European culinary habits inherited from her Prague childhood, with a preference for home-cooked meals. The family table was a natural extension of the laboratory, where ideas and hypotheses continued to flow freely.
Clothing
In the laboratory, Gerty invariably wore a white coat over modest, professional attire — dresses or suits typical of academic women in the 1930s–1950s. At official ceremonies — including the Nobel Prize award in Stockholm — she wore elegant outfits befitting her standing as an internationally recognized scientist.
Housing
The Coris lived in a quiet residential neighborhood in Saint Louis, in a comfortable home typical of American academic middle-class life of the era. Their home, filled with scientific books and journals, regularly served as an informal gathering place for their doctoral students and collaborators.
Historical Timeline
Period Vocabulary
Visual Style
Réalisme photographique années 1940, tons sépia chauds et bleu acier industriel, laboratoire universitaire du Midwest américain avec équipements biochimiques d'époque et blouses blanches.
Sound Ambience
Ambiance sonore d'un laboratoire de biochimie américain des années 1940 : bourdonnement des centrifugeuses, tintement discret de la verrerie, écriture studieuse dans les cahiers de résultats, murmures de discussions scientifiques.
Liens externes & ressources
Références
Œuvres
Description du cycle de Cori
1929
Isolement du glucose-1-phosphate (ester de Cori)
1936
Cristallisation de la phosphorylase du glycogène
1943
Conférence Nobel : Glycogen Structure and Enzyme Deficiencies in Glycogen Storage Disease
1947
Classification des glycogénoses
1952-1957
