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, she discovered the first nucleic-acid-synthesizing
enzyme. Initially, everyone thought the new enzyme was an RNA polymerase used
by cells to make long chains of RNA from separate nucleotides. 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 of RNA, not its synthesis.
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 and a Foreign Associate Member of the National Academy of
Sciences in 1982.
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.
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.
Grunberg-Manago
died in January, 2013, three days before her 92nd birthday.
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)
