Gerty Cori

Lore & Background

Gerty Cori was born into a Jewish family in Prague. Tutored at home before attending a lyceum for girls, she decided at age 16 to become a medical doctor. Lacking prerequisites in Latin, physics, chemistry, and mathematics, she studied the equivalent of eight years of Latin, five years of science, and five years of mathematics in one year. She passed the university entrance examination and was admitted to the medical school of the Karl-Ferdinands-Universität in Prague in 1914, an unusual achievement for women at that time. There she met Carl Ferdinand Cori in an anatomy class; they graduated in 1920 and married that year. Gerty converted to Catholic Christianity for the marriage. The couple moved to Vienna, where Gerty worked at the Carolinen Children's Hospital, conducting experiments on temperature regulation and publishing papers on blood disorders. Due to deteriorating conditions in Europe, including food shortages and anti-Semitism, the Coris emigrated to the United States in 1922.

At the New York State Institute for the Study of Malignant Disease (later Roswell Park Cancer Institute), the Coris collaborated on research into carbohydrate metabolism despite the director threatening to dismiss Gerty if she did not cease working with her husband. They published fifty papers while at Roswell, with Gerty publishing eleven as sole author. In 1929, they proposed the theoretical cycle later known as the Cori cycle. In 1931, they moved to Washington University in St. Louis, where Gerty was initially offered a research associate position at one-tenth her husband's salary, due to nepotism rules. She waited thirteen years to attain the same rank as her husband, becoming associate professor in 1943 and full professor months before winning the Nobel Prize. At Washington University, they discovered glucose 1-phosphate (the Cori ester), identified the enzyme phosphorylase, and deduced its role in glycogen breakdown and synthesis. Gerty also studied glycogen storage disease, identifying at least four forms and becoming the first to show that a defect in an enzyme can cause a human genetic disease.

Reader's Guide

Gerty Cori's work fundamentally clarified carbohydrate metabolism, particularly the reversible conversion of glycogen to glucose and the role of the Cori cycle in energy storage and release. Her discovery of the Cori ester and the enzyme phosphorylase provided a mechanistic understanding of how the body breaks down and resynthesizes glycogen, which proved crucial for developing treatments for diabetes. She was the first to demonstrate that an enzyme defect can cause a human genetic disease, opening a new field of medical research. Despite facing gender-based discrimination—including difficulty securing research positions, meager pay, and warnings that she might impede her husband's career—she persisted in collaborative and independent research. Her Nobel Prize in 1947 marked a milestone for women in science, and she was later elected to the National Academy of Sciences and appointed by President Truman to the National Science Foundation. Her legacy endures in the Cori cycle, the Cori ester, and her pioneering work on glycogen storage diseases.

Did You Know?

• Gerty Cori was the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• She and her husband Carl were the third married couple to win a Nobel Prize.