Carl Cori
Washington University
For contributions to the knowledge of carbohydrate metabolism, which clarify the action of insulin in diabetes.
With extraordinary perseverance, Carl F. Cori has dedicated the major portion of his scientific career to the elucidation of the devices which the body employs in the storage and utilization of carbohydrates. He has discovered hitherto unsuspected products formed by the animal from the common sugars and has investigated the reactions of these products. He has been responsible for the isolation of several of the enzymes which govern these reactions in the body and has thereby made possible a detailed enquiry into the kinetics of the reactions involved. He has elucidated the nature of the formation and breakdown of glycogen and has succeeded in reproducing these vital processes in the test tube.
He has studied the hormone of the pancreas and those of the adrenal and anterior pituitary glands, which are known to influence carbohydrate metabolism in the animal, and has elegantly demonstrated their intimate mode of operation upon certain enzymes. In the course of this work he succeeded, for the first time, in causing hormones to behave in a reasonable fashion outside the animal body. His discovery that insulin antagonizes an anterior pituitary inhibitor of the enzyme hexokinase has given to the medical profession the first clue to a real understanding of the metabolic defect in diabetes and the nature of insulin therapy.
