Carl Cori Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1947 jointly with Gerty T. Cori and Bernardo Usai Date of Birth: 05.12.1896 Country: USA

1. Early Life and Education
2. Post-War Career and Marriage
3. Move to the United States
4. Research on Carbohydrate Metabolism
5. Citizenship and Academic Appointments
6. Discovery of the Cori Cycle and Glycogen Synthesis
7. Nobel Prize and Later Career
8. Awards and Honors

Early Life and Education

Carl Ferdinand Cori, a renowned American biochemist and Nobel laureate, was born in Prague, Austria-Hungary, on December 5, 1896. His parents, Maria Kořibková and Carl Isidor Cori, were both scientists, with his father being a professor of zoology. After completing his secondary education in Prague and Trieste, Cori enrolled in 1914 in the German University in Prague to study medicine. However, the outbreak of World War I forced him to interrupt his studies and serve in the Austrian army as a medical officer on the Italian front.

Post-War Career and Marriage

Upon the war's end, Cori returned to university to complete his medical degree, which he received in 1920. He then worked as an assistant for two years in the First Medical Clinic of Vienna and later as an assistant in pharmacology at the University of Graz. During this time, he met Gerty Theresa Radnitz, a medical student whom he married in 1920.

Move to the United States

Cori's research caught the attention of the New York State Institute for the Study of Malignant Diseases (later Roswell Park Memorial Institute) in Buffalo. In 1922, he accepted an offer to work there as a biochemist. Leaving his wife temporarily in Europe, Cori moved to the United States. Settling in Buffalo, he secured a position for his wife as an assistant pathologist at the institute, and she later became an assistant biochemist.

Research on Carbohydrate Metabolism

The Coris shared a strong interest in the metabolism of carbohydrates in normal and cancerous tissues. During their early years in Buffalo, they focused on studying carbohydrate metabolism in tumor cells. They also investigated the effects of ovariectomy on the growth of such cells.

Citizenship and Academic Appointments

In 1928, the Coris became American citizens. The following year, Cori became an assistant professor of physiology at the University of Buffalo. In 1931, they moved to Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, where Cori was appointed professor of pharmacology and his wife became an associate member of the school and a research associate in pharmacology and biochemistry. They continued their research on carbohydrate metabolism, with particular focus on the biochemistry of glucose and glycogen.

Discovery of the Cori Cycle and Glycogen Synthesis

In the 1930s and 1940s, the Coris conducted a series of experiments that elucidated the biochemical reactions involved in glucose and glycogen metabolism. The complete cycle of glycogen breakdown and resynthesis is now known as the Cori cycle. In 1943, they isolated and crystallized phosphorylase and discovered that this enzyme exists in both active and inactive forms, illuminating the biochemical conditions under which the enzyme is activated. The following year, the Coris synthesized glycogen in a test tube, confirming their hypothesis of a three-step pathway for glycogen biosynthesis from glucose.

Nobel Prize and Later Career

In 1947, Carl and Gerty Cori were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discovery of the catalytic conversion of glycogen." They shared the prize with Argentine physiologist Bernardo Houssay. In his congratulatory speech, Hugo Theorell of the Karolinska Institute stated that the Coris' work "has revealed the extremely complicated enzymatic machinery taking part in the reversible reactions between glucose and glycogen." He hailed the discovery as "one of the most brilliant achievements of modern biochemistry" and the basis for "a new conception of the action of hormones and enzymes."

The Coris continued their research together until Gerty's untimely death in 1957. Carl Cori remarried in 1960 to Ann Fitzgerald Jones of St. Louis. In 1966, he retired from Washington University and was appointed professor emeritus of biochemistry at Harvard Medical School, where he continued his research until the end of his life. Cori passed away at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 20, 1984, at the age of 87.

Awards and Honors

Throughout his career, Cori was recognized with numerous awards and honors, including the Lasker Award of the American Public Health Association (1946), the Squibb Award of the Endocrine Society (shared with Gerty Cori) (1947), and the Willard Gibbs Medal of the American Chemical Society (1948). He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Philosophical Society, the American Society of Biological Chemists, and the American Chemical Society. Cori also received honorary degrees from Western Reserve University (now Case Western Reserve University), Brandeis University, and Yale University, among others.