Maud Menten
Canadian physician and chemist who advanced enzyme kinetics.
Last updated
via Wikipedia: University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine · see source
She is best known for the Michaelis-Menten equation, developed with Leonor Michaelis in 1913, which describes enzyme kinetics.[1][2]
Last updated 2026-10-08 from the source article.
Key facts and history
In 1912 she moved to Berlin to work with Leonor Michaelis, and the following year they published their famous paper on enzyme kinetics.[3][4] Menten obtained her Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Chicago in 1916.[5][6] Menten earned her M.D. from the University of Toronto in 1911 after studying medicine there.[7][2]
What the research sources say
The Canadian Medical Hall of Fame records that Menten characterized bacterial strains including Streptococcus scarlatina, leading to an immunization program for scarlet fever.[2] The Dictionary of Canadian Biography reports that in 1944 Menten's team was the first to use electrophoresis to examine adult and fetal hemoglobins, though this pioneering work has seldom been recognized.[4] The same source describes her azo-dye coupling reaction for alkaline phosphatase as a "stroke of genius" by prominent histochemist Anthony Guy Everson Pearse.[4] The Canadian Medical Hall of Fame states that Menten authored over 100 publications and was known for her 18-hour workdays.[2]
References
- Wikipedia, "Maud Menten" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Michaelis, "Die Kinetik der Invertinwirkung", Biochemische Zeitschrift, 1913, p. 333–369; Michaelis, "The kinetics of invertin action", FEBS Lett., 2013, p. 2712–2720; Johnson, "The Original Michaelis Constant: Translation of the 1913 Michaelis–Menten Paper", Biochemistry, 2011, p. 8264–8269 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "Dr. Maud Menten", The Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. facts only, no text reused. cdnmedhall.ca
- Wikipedia, "Maud Menten" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Michaelis, "Die Kinetik der Invertinwirkung", Biochemische Zeitschrift, 1913, p. 333–369 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "Maud Leonora Menten", Dictionary of Canadian Biography. facts only, no text reused. biographi.ca
- Wikipedia, "Maud Menten" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Leonor Michaelis and Maud Menten", Science History Institute, June 2016 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- "Leonor Michaelis and Maud Menten", Science History Institute, June 2016. facts only, no text reused. sciencehistory.org
- Wikipedia, "Maud Menten" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Dr. Maud Menten", The Canadian Medical Hall of Fame (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Maud Menten (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Maud Menten (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the , each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
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