Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori

Review

Her works include the study of the enzymatic reactions that accompany the conversion of muscle glycogen into glucose, pyruvic acid and lactic acid (Cori cycle), the effects of hormones on enzymatic activity and the isolation for the first time of aD-glucose-1-phosphate, also called Cori ester.

Justifications

• She was the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in the specialty of Physiology or Medicine.
• The prize, shared with the physiologist Bernardo Houssay, was received by her and her husband, Carl Ferdinand Cori, for having discovered the mechanism for transforming glycogen into lactic acid, a process known as the Cori cycle.

Biography

Gerty Theresa Radnitz was born into a Jewish family in Prague. Her father, Otto Radnitz, was a chemist who became a sugar refinery manager after inventing a successful refining method. Her mother, who was friends with Franz Kafka, was a cultured and sophisticated woman. Gerty received training in her own home with private teachers until she entered the Girls' Lyceum when she was ten years old. She soon became interested in medicine and, in 1914, she passed the entrance exam to the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Prague, where she began her university education. Six years later she obtained her doctorate. There she met Carl Ferdinand Cori, whom she married in 1920. Gerty moved to Vienna with her husband, where she worked for two years at the Children's Carolinen Hospital. In 1922, given the situation in Europe as a result of World War I, they emigrated to the United States. There, Carl got a job at the Buffalo State Institute for the Study of Malignant Diseases in New York State.

Gerty had many difficulties in carrying out her research work due to the fact that she was a woman. Just like Marie-Anne Pierette Paulze (1758-1836), wife of Lavoisier and currently considered the mother of modern chemistry and nutrition, working as a team with her husband gave her the opportunity to work in a laboratory.

Despite criticism from his colleagues, Carl insisted on doing research with his wife, whom he considered as capable as a man. In those years, they published many articles, some signed by him and others, the rarest, signed by her.
In 1931 Carl accepted a job as a researcher at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Carl asked for a similar position for his wife, endorsing his request with all of Gerty's experience and publications. Ultimately, Gerty had to accept a position as a research associate, earning ten times less than her husband. Despite everything, she did not give up and continued with her investigations. In 1943, almost ten years later, she obtained a position as full professor of Biochemistry and Pharmacology, and shortly after the Nobel Prize with her husband, Carl Ferdinand Cori. Gerty remained a full professor at the University of Washington until her death in 1957 from myelosclerosis.

Works

Bibliography

Ferrer Valero, Sandra (2016), La doctora reconocida, Gerty Cori (1896-1957) Mujeres con Ciencia, UPV, (September 2021)  https://mujeresconciencia.com/2016/03/30/la-doctora-reconocida-gerty-cori-1896-1957/ 
 
Wikipedia, (September 2021) https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerty_Cori 

Universitat Rovira I Virgili, september 2021 https://www.urv.cat/es/vida-campus/universidad-responsable/observatorio-igualdad/ano-mujeres-ciencias/dones-i-ciencies/dones-metgesses/gertytheresacori/
 
Ferrer Valero, Sandra (2014), La doctora reconocida, Gerty Cori (1896-1957), Mujeres en la Historia.com, september 2021 https://www.mujeresenlahistoria.com/2014/01/la-doctora-reconocida-gerty-cori-1896.html 
 
Cori, Gerty (1950). Glories of the Human Mind by Gerty Cori, Women in Health Siencies. Washington school of Medicinf St. Louis, September 2021  http://beckerexhibits.wustl.edu/mowihsp/words/CoriEssay.htm 
 
 

Didactic approach

-Biology-geology of 3rd of ESO. Could be suitable also for physics and chemistry.

Documents