Marianne Grunberg-Manago
Marianne Grunberg-Manago | |
---|---|
Born | Saint Petersburg, former Soviet Union | January 6, 1921
Died | January 3, 2013 | (aged 91)
Nationality | French |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Biochemistry |
Marianne Grunberg-Manago (January 6, 1921 – January 3, 2013) was a Soviet-born French biochemist. Her work helped make possible key discoveries about the nature of the genetic code.
Early life
Grunberg-Manago was born into a family of artists who adhered to the teachings of the Swiss educational reformer Johann Pestalozzi. When she was 9 months old, Grunberg-Manago's parents emigrated from the Soviet Union to France.
Education and Research
Grunberg-Manago studied biochemistry and, in 1955, while working in the lab of Spanish-America biochemist Severo Ochoa,[1] she discovered the first nucleic-acid-synthesizing enzyme.[2] Initially, everyone thought the new enzyme was an RNA polymerase used by E. coli cells to make long chains of RNA from separate nucleotides.[3] But although the new enzyme could link a few nucleotides together, the reaction was highly reversible and it later became clear that the enzyme, polynucleotide phosphorylase, usually catalyzes the breakdown of RNA, not its synthesis.[citation needed]
Nonetheless, the enzyme was extraordinarily useful and important. Almost immediately, Marshall Nirenberg and J. Heinrich Matthaei put it to use to form the first three-nucleotide RNA codons, which coded for the amino acid phenylalanine. This first step in cracking the genetic code entirely depended on the availability of Grunberg-Manago’s enzyme.
In 1959, Ochoa and Arthur Kornberg won the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for the synthesis of the nucleic acids RNA and DNA." She was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1978[4] and a Foreign Associate Member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1982.[5]
Grunberg-Manago was the first woman to direct the International Union of Biochemistry, and she was also the first woman to preside the French Academy of Sciences from 1995 to 1996.[6]
Later Life and Death
Late in her career, Grunberg-Manago was named emeritus director of research at CNRS, France’s National Center for Scientific Research.[6]
Grunberg-Manago died in January, 2013, three days before her 92nd birthday.[7]
Awards and nominations
- Member of the EMBO (1964)
- Charles-Léopold-Mayer Prize from the French Academy of Sciences (1966)
- Foreign member of the American Society of Biological Chemists (1972)
- Member of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology)
- Member of the French Society for biochemistry and molecular biology
- Foreign member of the Franklin Society (1995)
- Member of the Spanish Society for molecular biology
- Member of the Greek Society for molecular biology
- Member of the Executive Board of the ICSU
- Foreign member of the New York Academy of Sciences (1977)
- Foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1978)
- Foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States (1982)
- Honorary foreign member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1988)
- Member of Academia Europea (1988)
- Honorary foreign member of the Russian Academy of sciences (1991)
- Foreign member of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (1991)
- Grand Officer of the National Order of the Legion of Honor(2008)
References
- ^ Grunberg-Manago, M. (1997). "Severo Ochoa. 24 September 1905--1 November 1993: Elected For.Mem.R.S. 1965". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 43: 351–310. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1997.0020.
- ^ Grunberg-Manago, Marianne; Ortiz, P; Ochoa, S (April 1956). "Enzymic synthesis of polynucleotides. I. Polynucleotide phosphorylase of Azotobacter vinelandii". Biochem Biophysica Acta. 20 (1): 269–85. PMID 13315374.
- ^ Grunberg-Manago, M.; Oritz, P. J.; Ochoa, S. (1955). "Enzymatic synthesis of nucleic acidlike polynucleotides". Science. 122 (3176): 907–910. doi:10.1126/science.122.3176.907. PMID 13274047.
- ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter Gurl=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterG.pdf". American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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(help) - ^ "Marianne Grunberg-Manago". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved July 30, 2014.
- ^ a b "Biography of Marianne Grunberg-Manago" (PDF) (in French). French Academy of Sciences. February 22, 2010. Retrieved 9 January 2013.
- ^ "L'Académie des sciences a le regret de faire part du décès de Marianne Grunberg-Manago survenu à Paris le 3 janvier 2013." "Le 3 janvier, décès de Marianne Grunberg-Manago" (in French). French Academy of Sciences. January 2013. Retrieved 9 January 2013.
- 1921 births
- 2013 deaths
- French biochemists
- Officers of the French Academy of Sciences
- Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Grand Officiers of the Légion d'honneur
- Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
- French women scientists
- Women biochemists
- 20th-century women scientists
- 20th-century American scientists