The day of the breakthrough that would eventually make her the first American woman to win a Nobel Prize in science, Gerty Cori reportedlyran down the halls of her Washington University laboratory, shouting to her husband, the chemist Carl Cori, "Carly, Carly, it’s glucose-1-phosphate!'"
Brilliant chemists of the early 20th century, the Coris used their Washington University laboratory to unpack the ways that muscles and the liver work to metabolize sugar — all the while contending with a scientific establishment that tried pretty much everything to keep her out of the lab.
Fittingly, St. Louis' first female mayor got the chance this week to honor the pioneering couple, establishing October 23 as Gerty and Carl Cori Day.
The honor was also extended by the state of Missouri and the suburb of Glendale, where the couple made their home.
It was 70 years ago on October 23 that Gerty and Carl got the news that they'd jointly won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, "for their discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen."…