The Nobel Prize-winning love of Gerty and Carl Cori
12:18AM Apr 2, 2022
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Today is World Health Day Happy World Health Day and in the spirit of health and how love can nourish you. We've got a love story that takes us from gender discrimination in the medical field all the way to the Nobel Prize. I'm Sarah Wendell. I'm Alicia Rai.
welcome to lovestruck daily where we bring a love story to your years every single day. I'm in love with love with you. Happy World Health Day, Alicia. Thank you. I didn't know that was a thing. But it's very exciting that it is
it is a thing. One thing I know that you and I look forward to is our weekly investigation of the New York Times. Quiz. 36 questions to fall in love. Yep. This week's question is a bit of a heavy one. You ready? It's a bit of a heavy one. Do you have a secret hunch about how you will die? My cousin at the first line of Twilight? Oh my god. That is the first thing that really like, oh, no, I'm gonna look that up. What about a secret hunches?
The thing? It's this quiz. I love it because it jumps from like, who would you have to dinner to? How will you die? How will you die?
Yeah, whoa, damn.
I don't really have a secret hunch about how I'm going to die. I think. Hopefully, I will just live a long happy life with the people I love and in my sleep painlessly. That would be ideal. I think I think that's what everybody hopes for a little bit. I yeah, I'm not sure. I'm not sure on this one. What about you, Sarah?
I have really not thought about the how are the when? Yeah, I just hope there are things I want to do before it happens. Yeah, you know what I mean, there's things I want to do and experience and have in my life before it happens. There's a point in your life where it seems like everyone around you is getting married, and then everyone around you is maybe having children and then a lot of people around, you might be getting divorced. And then you move into the time in your life where people who raised you start to pass away. And then you get to the point where people who are your peers start to pass away. And that's kind of like a big whoa, wait a minute, whoa, wait a minute. Wait a minute. And that is starting to happen more and more for me. So I'm more cognizant of the things I want to do in my life before that happens. But I don't have any hunch about how or when. Just not soon, please, if I can put that out in the universe. I got things I like to do and people I'd like to see.
There are people who have like definite hunches like my best friend is convinced she's gonna die on the 110 freeway in LA. And like very committed to this to the point where she won't drive on it. And she was like, I'm a little I'm a little like Ed, she is she does have like premonitions about things. So I also don't want her to drive out. Like that is it's the worst freeway in like LA cuz it was built like who knows what I think it's one of the oldest freeways and the entrance and exit ramps are like three feet big. They're not built for they're not built for modern day cars. So I do believe her to an extent, but I don't think I ever really thought about it.
I've had premonitions, but not about my death or someone else's death. However, I will tell you, I did find the first line of Twilight. I'd never given much thought to how I would die, though. I'd had reasons enough in the last few months. But even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this.
Oh, that's actually a great first line. That is a really good first Yeah,
clearly Bella took this quiz. Who knew? I had no idea that Bella took this quiz. Oh, Bella. Well, we have a story today to celebrate World Health Day, the opposite of dying, in fact,
very much the opposite of dying. So to celebrate today, our story follows the life and love of Gertie Cory, who not only won the Nobel Prize for her contributions to the field of cellular biology, but also who has a love story. That's one for the books. I love learning about women in STEM, especially in the older days, because it was so like, obviously, they've been there forever, but they were minimized and they basically had to be their husband's assistants for so long, even though they had brilliant minds of their own. So Gertie was born to a wealthy family in Prague, and she luckily very luckily had an uncle who was interested in her education. He got her some tutors so she could apply to medical school. The medical school application process was very sexist in that it permitted women to attend. But the entrance exam featured sections in Latin math, physics and chemistry, none of which were taught in girls schools. So very much like just gave lip service to being inclusive to women without actually allowing them in and in practice,
it's equally but not equity.
Right? Right. And it's interesting because my mom had kind of the same experience in that she was. Her mother was widowed, widowed, very young, she lost her father when she was very young. And in India at that time, you know, in the 50s and 60s, it was you couldn't do much without a father kind of in the house, like her mom was really kind of dependent on the VA charity of her family and his family. And, and it was, she was like, determined to be a doctor and everyone said, You're never going to be a doctor, you don't, you don't have a father, you don't have anybody to fund your education. You don't have any way to go, you will not be able to even get into the schools that would help you get into med school at the time. And, and she just did it. She was like, No, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna do it. And so she did it. But it is very hard. And that level of determination is amazing. But Cory and my mom had a passion for this. And in medical school, she found two of her life's passions, which was biochemistry and Carl Cory say that 10 times fast. What a great name, Carl Cory. She and Carl met in anatomy class and they became inseparable. They were studying together hiking, skiing and researching. And they married right after Corey received her degree at age 24. Wow. Yeah. And now this was this was the 1920s. She and her husband had to emigrate. Due to anti semitism being on the rise in Europe. Gertie had converted to Judaism to marry Carol, but, you know, they were quite heavily discriminated against. That is not protection. It is not protection. And so within their relationship, they were pretty much equals but they weren't treated like that in the labs, and they arrived in America and I will just say I grew up in Buffalo, they, their first position was in Buffalo. Well shout out to Buffalo. Their Buffalo was a lovely place to live, but they were not treated great there. They worked in the lab for eight years, and they're very industrious. They published 50 papers in their tenure there. Wow. But they leave, they leave, because Gertie wasn't getting equal treatment. And unfortunately, everywhere they went, they encountered same problem places straight up, wouldn't hire her because she was a woman, despite all of her qualifications, and publishing 50 papers with her husband, and if they did hire, they wouldn't pay her nearly as much as her husband would get. It was it was so wild. So the equal equal education for both of them right. In Buffalo, Carl Horry ran the pathology route lab. Gertie Cory was his assistant. When he became a professor at the Washington University School of Medicine in 1931. She became a research associate. Nevertheless, she persisted and they continued their research focusing on carbohydrate metabolism, and the ultimately discover and uncover the process by which glucose is metabolized in the body, aka how we get energy. It is now called the cori cycle, which is like a basic cellular process in which body stores sugar and muscle cells as glycogen, sends it to the liver processing and sends it back to muscles as glucose and I have PCOS, so I know all about this. Yes,
me to 10 PCOS. Yeah, team. Yeah, sisters. Yep.
Yep. So very proud of Gertie for figuring this out for us. The really kind of wild thing is, it is not until two months after receiving the Nobel prize that Gertie was finally promoted to the rank of professor. She had to win the Nobel Prize.
Anyone who is listening to this, who is an academic Yeah, probably shaking their heads and say, Yeah, sounds about right.
In order to get 10 years, she had to win the Nobel Prize. And she was the first woman to ever win the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1947. So take that. And it's it's so lovely seeing the pictures of her accepting it. But one thing she said that I thought was really beautiful was, there's a quote from her in this on the Nobel Prize website, where it says, The unforgotten moments of my life are those rare ones, which come after years of plotting work, when the veil over nature's secret suddenly seems to lift. And when what was dark and chaotic, appears in a clear and beautiful light and pattern. Oh, my God, that's like poetry. Science is poetry in a lot of ways, I think. But how, how lovely is that?
That's incredible. And to know that you have someone standing behind you and beside you, as you pursue something that every other person is trying to get in your way. She can't find jobs, she can't get hired. She can't get a legitimate position. She's always going to be secondary to her husband, even though it's her research that she's working on. I imagine that partnership was deeply supportive to her on many levels.
It really is essential to have somebody who believes in you and isn't For the world, I mean, she went on to discover the enzyme deficiency at the heart of several diseases that would have been lost. Because if she hadn't won the Nobel Prize, she wouldn't have gotten that professorship, she wouldn't have had the money she wouldn't have had, you know, all these other things, and, and how many achievements have been lost to the world because a man made biases, more just people don't want to see other people succeed.
And just thinking of this shift in the demographics of medicine. I mean, when I was very young, almost all of the OBGYN were men. And now I go, when I go to an OB GYN practice, most of the medical professionals are all different genders, all genders, and all all different kinds of signals are sent to welcome people. And it's the difference from like, when I was a very young person, going from my first checkup, to now as a as an adult, is amazing, just to see the incredible amount of progress and inclusivity that's happening and is still happening. But of course, there still
needs to be more Oh, so much more, and especially amongst underrepresented minorities, black and absolutely, women especially, remain really underrepresented in all STEM fields in the US. So there's still a lot of work to be done. I mean, it really is, it's always great to acknowledge how much progress we've made, and then continue to strive to make more progress. I think it's the only way to really, to really get ahead in this world. And to make sure that we're not missing key people are going to cure diseases or support other people who are going to cure diseases. So it's almost like scary to hear stories like this, because what if she hadn't met him? What if she hadn't had a loving partnership? What if she hadn't had somebody who supported her and believed in her and was ready to move to make sure that she got as much equal treatment as possible, but he could have sat there and his professorship and wouldn't have to wait, wait 16 years, but good for her. Very proud of it.
It's amazing how medicine continues to change and evolve. Now I am asked, What are my pronouns? What is my gender? Yeah, what what what are the ways in which I refer to myself? What is my sexuality? How do How would you like to be referred to who may we contact on your behalf? And what are their pronouns? What are they? How do they prefer to be addressed? And I'm like this, this was not here two, three years ago. It used to be like, I
was very nervous, because I would watch these like medical dramas and I Oh, God.
So what you were worried, like in Grey's Anatomy that, uh, no, it was, er, that a helicopter was going to fall off the building and kill you after another helicopter cut off your arm?
No, that's not what I was worried about. I was worried about that my nurses and doctors would be too busy sleeping with each other to pay attention to me coding somewhere. And it's a valid concern. That was my main concern, watching all these medical dramas. So I that was one of my issues. But but also like, as I got older, I mean, PCOS is a hormonal imbalance. And yes, it
is unfortunately, common, very common. It is
makes it very hard to lose weight makes it very easy to gain weight. And the main cure I found over the years to, hey, can you help me with my PCOS I'm gaining a lot of weight was you should try losing weight. I was like, wow, that's not
that's not helping.
Do you help me do that? Very, that was my main source of anxiety after worrying about whether the doctors and nurses were all sleeping together while I was coding. I didn't want to know my doctors have love lives. I want them to be only focused on me.
Before we get into the height, weight, blood pressure, you know, all of that if you guys have been shopping in the room yet, I just need to know
I just need to know. Also, like, nobody should do that. I mean, with my mom being a physician, I know how filthy those hospitals get rid of everything. Nobody should be going. It's not sexy. It's dirty.
Aside from please don't show up in the broom closet. Alicia, what is our love to go?
Well, I think that's a pretty hearty one. But I will I will add that you should always always be first open to the possibilities. Go after what you want. And and maybe make it easier for somebody else to go after what they want. That's really good. I mean, who knows what could come out of it could get cures for diseases,
be the support you wish you had? Yeah, yeah,
I agree. And we would love to hear all your stories about your favorite broom closet. Sacks.
Did an ambulance follow up your hospital and cut off your arm? You may be entitled to compensation. Email us at lovestruck daily at Frohlich dot media
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Our researcher is Jesse Epstein. Our editor is Jen Jacobs. We are produced by Abigail steckler and little Scorpion studios and Gillian Davis with executive producer frolic media. This is an I Heart Radio Podcast.
