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Portrait of Gerty Cori
Photo: National Library of Medicine, Images from the History of Medicine, B05353, http://en.wikipedia.org, https://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/gallery/photo_69_3.html · Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine · 1947

Gerty Cori

She showed how the body stores and releases sugar, and with her husband traced a deadly childhood disease to one missing enzyme.

The Nobel citation: “for their discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen”
Born
August 15, 1896, Prague, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic)
Died
October 26, 1957, St. Louis, MO, USA
Shared with
Carl Cori, Bernardo Houssay
Affiliation at the time
Washington University, USA

Medicine prize

1947

Shared with 2 other laureates.

Age that year

51years

Born in 1896.

Headline credited impact

125–550lives saved

Children with glycogen storage disease type I who survived thanks to dietary treatment (1976-2025). How it was built

Sources cited

22

Fact-checked September 24, 2026.

  • In 1947 she became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and the first American woman to win a Nobel Prize in science.
  • Carl Cori's family feared her Jewish background would hurt his career. She converted to Catholicism, yet antisemitism still helped drive the couple out of Europe in 1922.
  • At Washington University she started as a research associate, reportedly paid one-tenth of her husband's salary, though the two worked as equals in the lab.
  • In 1952 she and Carl Cori showed that von Gierke disease comes from one missing liver enzyme, among the first diseases traced to a specific enzyme defect.
  • Six scientists mentored by Gerty and Carl Cori went on to win Nobel Prizes of their own.

The breakthrough

How the body stores and releases sugar: the Cori cycle, Cori ester and phosphorylase

Your body stores spare sugar as glycogen, a large, bushy molecule made of thousands of glucose units, kept mainly in the liver and muscles. Glycogen was discovered in the 1850s, but the chemical steps by which the body builds it up and breaks it down stayed largely unknown until the Coris' work. Working as a team with her husband Carl, Gerty Cori first mapped the big picture. In 1929 they described what became known as the Cori cycle: working muscles turn glycogen into lactic acid, the liver turns that lactic acid back into glycogen and then glucose, and the blood carries the glucose back to the muscles. Then they zoomed in. In 1936 they isolated a new compound, glucose-1-phosphate, soon called the Cori ester. It showed that glycogen is not simply split apart by water, as had been thought. Instead, an enzyme they named phosphorylase uses phosphate to snip glucose units off the ends of glycogen's branches one at a time. Picture glycogen as a tree hung with beads: phosphorylase is a clip that removes beads from the branch tips. The Coris ran the enzyme in reverse to build glycogen-like chains in a test tube, the first time a large biological molecule had been made outside a living cell, and with Arda Green they later crystallized it. With Joseph Larner, Gerty Cori went on to find the debranching enzyme, which handles the points where glycogen's branches fork.[1],[2],[3],[4],[7],[8],[9],[10]

“I believe that in art and science are the glories of the human mind. I see no conflict between them.”
Gerty Cori, From 'This I Believe', a short statement of her personal philosophy that she submitted to the National Academy of Sciences in 1954.[7]

What it meant for humanity

The Coris explained, step by step, how the body stores sugar and releases it on demand, a process at the heart of exercise, fasting and diabetes. The U.S. National Library of Medicine says the Cori cycle proved especially useful for treating diabetes, and Washington University says their work underpins much of today's diabetes research. Their discovery that phosphorylase exists in an active and an inactive form hinted at a hidden switch inside cells. Earl Sutherland and Edwin Krebs, both trained in the Cori lab, later showed that the switch works by attaching phosphate to the enzyme. That line of work led to cyclic AMP and to the chains of phosphate switches now known to control a great many cell processes. Gerty Cori also carried biochemistry into the clinic. In 1952 she and Carl showed that von Gierke disease, a childhood illness in which the liver swells with stored glycogen, happens because the liver enzyme glucose-6-phosphatase is missing. Without it, glycogen cannot be turned into blood glucose. It was one of the first diseases traced to a specific enzyme defect. She went on to describe four forms of glycogen storage disease: three tied to different missing enzymes, and one whose cause was still unknown. Treatment for the type I disease now centers on preventing low blood sugar: night-time tube feeding from 1976, and uncooked cornstarch from the early 1980s. Before effective treatment, most children with the disease did not live to grow up; now most reach adulthood. The Cori lab was also a training ground, where six future Nobel laureates learned their craft.

  • In 1936 the Coris isolated glucose-1-phosphate, the 'Cori ester', and traced it to phosphorylase, the enzyme that both breaks down and builds glycogen and starch.[2],[4]
  • Their test-tube synthesis of glycogen was the first time a large biological molecule had been made outside a living cell.[8],[9]
  • In 1952 Gerty and Carl Cori showed that von Gierke disease is caused by a missing liver enzyme, glucose-6-phosphatase, one of the first inherited diseases traced to a specific enzyme defect.[9],[15],[16],[22]
  • With dietary treatment that keeps blood sugar up, most people with glycogen storage disease type I now reach adulthood. Before such treatment, most did not survive childhood.[17],[18],[19]
  • Six scientists mentored by the Coris won Nobel Prizes. Associates who honored them in 1956 included future laureates Arthur Kornberg, Severo Ochoa, Luis Leloir, Earl Sutherland and Christian de Duve.[8],[9],[11]

Impact in numbers

Gerty Cori's legacy is mostly knowledge: a clear map of how the body stores and spends sugar, a set of purified enzymes, and the idea that a disease can come from one missing enzyme. Foundations like these are hard to put a number on, because they feed into countless later advances in diabetes research, exercise physiology and cell signaling. We therefore count only one narrow, documented slice: children with glycogen storage disease type I who survived thanks to dietary treatment aimed at the problem she pinpointed. We credit her with just 5% of it, since Carl Cori co-authored the key 1952 study and other doctors invented the feeding treatments. Her wider influence ran through people: six scientists trained in the Cori lab went on to win Nobel Prizes. As the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, after years of unequal pay and rank, she also widened the path for women in science.

HealthFundamental scienceWomen's rights

Each number is the laureate’s credited share of a real-world outcome, cumulative to 2025. The whole outcome, the share of credit, and the reasoning are shown so you can check the arithmetic. Outcomes shared with other laureates are counted once on the impact page.

  • Low confidenceRippleModeledHealth

    Children with glycogen storage disease type I who survived thanks to dietary treatment (1976-2025)

    125–550

    lives saved, credited share

    That is 5% of 2,500–11,000 lives saved since 1976.

    How this number was built

    GSD I affects ~1 in 100,000 births (ACMG 2014; Froissart 2011). Effective treatment began with night-time tube feeding in 1976 (Greene) and cornstarch in the early 1980s. UN births via OWID: high-income countries 1976-2025 = 0.675B (low: treatment only there); high adds upper-middle-income births 2000-2025 (0.961B) = 1.636B. Affected: 6,750-16,360. Before effective treatment most patients died in childhood; now most reach adulthood (Garbade 2021). Assume treatment prevents death in 40% (low) to 70% (high): 2,700-11,450, rounded to 2,500-11,000. Share 0.05: the Coris' 1952 finding that liver glucose-6-phosphatase is missing explained why patients cannot turn glycogen into blood glucose and enabled enzyme diagnosis, but Carl Cori co-authored it and others devised the feeding therapies, gene tests and care.[8],[15],[16],[17],[18],[19],[20]

    Sources: Journal of Biological Chemistry (PubMed record); Genetics in Medicine; Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases (via PubMed Central); Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases (via PubMed Central); New England Journal of Medicine (PubMed record); Our World in Data; National Academy of Sciences (National Academies Press)

The double edge

No harm to other people has been traced to Gerty Cori's work. The caveats are scientific, plus one possible personal cost. Some Cori-lab conclusions did not hold up. The body builds glycogen by a different route from the one the Coris ran in the test tube. A 1945 claim about how insulin works, which the Nobel presentation speech praised, proved hard to reproduce and was abandoned. Her own early research may also have cost her dearly. In Buffalo in 1923 and 1924 she studied the effects of X-rays, and her biographer Joseph Larner wondered whether that exposure contributed to the bone marrow disease that killed her. That link remains speculation.

  • Minor

    The test-tube route was not the body's main route

    The Coris showed that phosphorylase could build glycogen in a test tube, and many assumed the body did the same. In the late 1950s Luis Leloir showed that cells build glycogen by a separate route, using a different enzyme and a sugar carrier called UDP-glucose. Building and breaking down glycogen turned out to use separate pathways.[8],[21]

  • Minor

    An insulin theory that did not hold up

    In 1945 the Cori lab, chiefly Carl Cori with W. H. Price and Sidney Colowick, reported that insulin works by lifting a pituitary brake on the enzyme hexokinase. The 1947 Nobel presentation speech hailed it, but others found it hard to reproduce, the work was dropped, and the field concluded that insulin first acts by letting sugar into muscle cells.[4],[7],[8]

  • Minor

    Possible radiation toll on herself

    In 1923 and 1924 Gerty Cori published four papers on how X-rays affect skin and organs. Her NAS biographer wondered whether this exposure contributed to the bone marrow disease diagnosed in 1947 that killed her in 1957. This is a hypothesis, not an established cause.[7],[9]

Against the odds

Gerty Radnitz grew up in Prague at a time when Jews in Austria-Hungary had legal equality but still faced outbreaks of violence. Anti-Jewish riots hit Prague in 1897, when she was a year old. A ritual-murder accusation, the Hilsner affair of 1899-1900, set off riots against Jews across Bohemia and Moravia, and Prague's Jews were attacked again in 1919, while she was in medical school. Girls' schools did not teach the Latin, math, physics and chemistry needed for medical school, so she crammed them to pass the entrance exam. After World War I, food was so scarce that she developed xerophthalmia, an eye disease caused by malnutrition. Carl Cori's family opposed the marriage because of her Jewish background, and her conversion to Catholicism did not ease their fears. In Vienna, Carl's clinical supervisor was strongly antisemitic, and the University of Graz made Carl prove his 'Aryan' descent before hiring him. Realizing that her Jewish origin made academic jobs in Europe very unlikely, the couple left for the United States in 1922. America offered freedom but not equal treatment. In Buffalo she was told that working with her husband could cost her job, and Cornell, Toronto and Rochester wanted Carl but not her. At Washington University she started as a research associate, reportedly on one-tenth of his salary, and became a full professor only in 1947.

  • 1897

    Antisemitic attack

    Prague's Jewish community was hit by violence in 1897 and again in 1919. In 1899-1900 the Hilsner ritual-murder case set off riots against Jews in towns across Bohemia and Moravia, Prague included.[13],[14]

  • 1912

    Discrimination

    Girls' schools did not teach the Latin, math, physics and chemistry needed to enter medical school, so few women could pass the exam. She spent about two years catching up before passing it in 1914.[2],[6],[9]

  • 1920

    Discrimination

    Carl Cori's family opposed the marriage, convinced her Jewish background would hurt his career. She converted to Catholicism, but it did not ease their fears.[9],[11]

  • 1921

    War

    After World War I, hunger was widespread. Working at a Vienna children's hospital on an inadequate diet, she developed xerophthalmia, an eye disease caused by malnutrition, which improved once she ate better at home in Prague.[7],[8]

  • 1922

    Discrimination

    Carl's supervisor in Vienna was strongly antisemitic, and the University of Graz made Carl prove 'Aryan' descent to be hired. Seeing that her Jewish origin made academic posts in Europe very unlikely, the couple emigrated to the US.[7],[8],[9]

  • 1931

    Discrimination

    Cornell, Toronto and Rochester each wanted Carl but would not take her, and at Rochester she was reportedly told she was standing in his way. Washington University gave her only a research associate post, said to pay a tenth of his salary.[10],[11],[12]

Jewish background

Both parents JewishConverted to another faith

Gerty Radnitz was raised Jewish in Prague, the eldest of three daughters in an upper-middle-class Jewish family. Her father, Otto Radnitz, was a chemist who managed sugar refineries; her mother was Martha Neustadt. She converted to Catholicism in order to marry Carl Cori in 1920. His family still opposed the match, convinced her Jewish background would harm his career. Her Jewish origin went on shaping her life: the couple's decision to leave Europe was driven largely by antisemitism. No source found describes Jewish religious practice in her adult life.[6],[9],[11]

Key dates

  1. August 15, 1896

    Born Gerty Theresa Radnitz in Prague, Austria-Hungary, the eldest of three daughters in a Jewish family.[1],[9]

  2. 1914

    Passes the university entrance exam and enters the medical school of the German University of Prague, where she meets Carl Cori.[2],[7]

  3. August 1920

    Earns her medical degree and, having converted to Catholicism, marries Carl Cori in Vienna. The couple publish their first joint paper.[2],[6],[7]

  4. 1921

    Works in pediatrics at the Karolinen Children's Hospital in Vienna, where a poor postwar diet leaves her with xerophthalmia.[7],[8]

  5. 1922

    Emigrates to Buffalo, New York, about six months after Carl, to work at the State Institute for the Study of Malignant Disease.[7],[9],[10]

  6. 1928

    Gerty and Carl Cori become US citizens.[2],[10]

  7. 1929

    With Carl, describes the Cori cycle, which links lactic acid from working muscles to glycogen and glucose made in the liver.[1],[7]

  8. 1931

    Moves to Washington University in St. Louis, hired as a research associate because rules barred two members of one family from faculty posts.[10],[11]

  9. 1936

    The Coris isolate glucose-1-phosphate, the 'Cori ester'. Her only child, Tom, is born the same year.[2],[9]

  10. 1943

    With Arda Green and Carl, publishes four landmark papers on crystallized muscle phosphorylase, the enzyme that breaks down and builds glycogen.[4],[7]

  11. 1947

    Is made a full professor of biochemistry, and learns she has myelosclerosis, a fatal bone marrow disease.[1],[9],[10]

  12. December 10, 1947

    Receives the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, sharing half with Carl Cori; the other half goes to Bernardo Houssay.[4],[5],[6]

  13. 1952

    With Carl, shows that von Gierke disease results from missing glucose-6-phosphatase; she then describes four forms of glycogen storage disease in a Harvey Lecture.[7],[15],[16]

  14. October 26, 1957

    Dies in St. Louis at 61 after ten years of illness, having kept working in the lab almost to the end.[1],[9],[10]

Sources

  1. 1.Gerty Cori - Facts · NobelPrize.org (Nobel Prize Outreach)
  2. 2.Gerty Cori - Biographical · NobelPrize.org (from Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1942-1962, Elsevier, 1964), 1947
  3. 3.Polysaccharide Phosphorylase (Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1947, by Carl F. Cori and Gerty T. Cori) · NobelPrize.org, 1947
  4. 4.The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1947 - Presentation speech by Professor H. Theorell · NobelPrize.org, 1947
  5. 5.The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1947 - Summary · NobelPrize.org
  6. 6.Gerty Cori (Women who changed science) · NobelPrize.org (Nobel Prize Outreach)
  7. 7.Gerty Theresa Cori, 1896-1957: A Biographical Memoir (Larner J; Biographical Memoirs vol. 61, pp. 111-135) · National Academy of Sciences (National Academies Press), 1992
  8. 8.Carl Ferdinand Cori (Cohn M; Biographical Memoirs vol. 61) · National Academy of Sciences (National Academies Press), 1992
  9. 9.Gerty Theresa Cori (Cohn M), Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women · Jewish Women's Archive
  10. 10.Biography: Gerty T. Cori (Dubinsky E) · Bernard Becker Medical Library, Washington University School of Medicine
  11. 11.Cori Nobel Prize medals donated to Washington University · WashU Medicine (Washington University School of Medicine), 2016
  12. 12.Dr. Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori (Changing the Face of Medicine) · U.S. National Library of Medicine
  13. 13.Bohemia and Moravia (Kieval HJ), YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe · YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
  14. 14.Hilsner Affair (Kieval HJ), YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe · YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
  15. 15.Glucose-6-phosphatase of the liver in glycogen storage disease (Cori GT, Cori CF; J Biol Chem 199:661-667) · Journal of Biological Chemistry (PubMed record), 1952
  16. 16.Diagnosis and management of glycogen storage disease type I: a practice guideline of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (Kishnani PS et al.) · Genetics in Medicine, 2014
  17. 17.Glucose-6-phosphatase deficiency (Froissart R et al.) · Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases (via PubMed Central), 2011
  18. 18.Impact of glycogen storage disease type I on adult daily life: a survey (Garbade SF et al.) · Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases (via PubMed Central), 2021
  19. 19.Continuous nocturnal intragastric feeding for management of type 1 glycogen-storage disease (Greene HL et al.; N Engl J Med 294:423-425) · New England Journal of Medicine (PubMed record), 1976
  20. 20.Births and deaths per year, by World Bank income group (UN World Population Prospects 2024) · Our World in Data, 2024
  21. 21.The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1970 - Presentation speech (Luis F. Leloir) · NobelPrize.org, 1970
  22. 22.Recessive congenital methaemoglobinaemia: cytochrome b5 reductase deficiency (Percy MJ, Lappin TR; Br J Haematol 141:298-308) · British Journal of Haematology (PubMed record), 2008

Fact-checked on September 24, 2026 by a separate AI fact-checking pass that re-opened the sources, with 10 corrections made. How we check

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