Women Who Changed Medicine: 13 Nobel Prize Laureates

1947 – Gerty Cori (August 15, 1896 – October 26, 1957)
“for their discovery of the catalytic conversion of glycogen.”
The first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine graduated from medical school in Prague but, due to her Jewish heritage, had to emigrate with her husband to the USA. Together, they studied glucose metabolism and the role of hormones. They described the Cori cycle (1929), the conversion of lactic acid into glycogen and glycogen into glucose. Throughout her lifetime, she received numerous additional awards for her contributions to science.

1977 – Rosalyn Yalow (July 19, 1921 – May 30, 2011)
“for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones.”
A nuclear physicist who developed radioimmunoassay (RIA), used to measure small concentrations of substances in the blood. In collaboration with Dr. Solomon Berson, the accuracy of this diagnostic technique demonstrated that type 2 diabetes was due to ineffective insulin utilization (previously it was thought to be caused by insulin deficiency). This method was also applied to screening donated blood for infectious pathogens such as HIV and hepatitis viruses.

1983 – Barbara McClintock (June 16, 1902 – September 2, 1992)
“for her discovery of mobile genetic elements,” or transposons (jumping genes).
A botanist who studied at Cornell University's College of Agriculture, she never married and dedicated her life entirely to science. McClintock researched the hereditary traits of maize and their transmission across generations, linking these to chromosome changes. During the 1940s and 1950s, she demonstrated that genetic elements could change positions within chromosomes, thereby activating or blocking nearby genes.

1986 – Rita Levi-Montalcini (April 22, 1909 – December 30, 2012)
“for their discoveries of growth factors.”
A neurologist from a Jewish family, Levi-Montalcini worked at the University of Turin until Mussolini's racial laws (1938) banned Jews from academia. She continued her research on nerve fiber growth in chicken embryos in a laboratory she set up in her bedroom. After Nazi troops entered Italy in September 1943, her family fled to Florence, hiding under false identities until the end of the war. From September 1946, Levi-Montalcini worked for 30 years at Washington University in St. Louis, USA.
In 1952, she isolated nerve growth factor (NGF) from mouse tumors, promoting intense growth of the nervous system in chicken embryos. Her research deepened the understanding of deformities, dementia, wound healing delays, and cancers. She also opened a laboratory in Rome in 1962.

1988 – Gertrude Belle Elion (January 23, 1918 – February 21, 1999)
“for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment.”
A trained chemist, Elion initially struggled to find laboratory employment due to gender discrimination, eventually securing a job during World War II when male labor was scarce.
Her research revolutionized drug development and medicine. Together with colleague Hitchings, she analyzed differences between healthy and pathogenic cells, developing drugs specifically targeting pathogens. Their systematic approach, based on biochemistry and disease understanding, replaced the previous trial-and-error strategy. They created medications for leukemia, malaria, infections, gout, and to prevent transplant rejection. Elion and her team obtained a total of 45 patents.

1995 – Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard (October 20, 1942)
“for their discoveries concerning the genetic control of early embryonic development.”
She studied biology at Goethe University in Frankfurt and later biochemistry at the Max Planck Institute in Tübingen. After working at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, she returned to Tübingen’s Max Planck Institute.
Together with Wieschaus, she studied fruit fly embryogenesis and around 1980 identified and classified 15 genes responsible for cell behavior during the fly's development.

2004 – Linda B. Buck (January 29, 1947)
“for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system.”
An immunologist and microbiologist who studied at the University of Washington and later at the University of Texas, Dallas.
Working with Richard Axel at Columbia University in New York in 1991, she revealed how hundreds of genes in human DNA encode odor receptors in nasal olfactory neurons, explaining how the brain perceives diverse odors.

2008 – Françoise Barré-Sinoussi (July 30, 1947)
“for their discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).”
A scientist from humble beginnings, she initially chose the shortest and cheapest education available. She began volunteering at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, where she earned her doctorate in 1975.
In 1983, Barré-Sinoussi and Montagnier identified a retrovirus (HIV) attacking lymphocytes, causing AIDS. This discovery revolutionized AIDS treatment, extending and improving the lives of millions of HIV-positive people.

2009 – Elizabeth H. Blackburn (November 26, 1948), Carol W. Greider (April 15, 1961)
“for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.”
Blackburn studied biochemistry in Melbourne and postgraduate studies at Cambridge. She worked at Yale and UCSF, addressing ethical implications of research. Greider, overcoming the loss of her mother early in life, completed postgraduate studies at Berkeley, supervised by Blackburn, and later moved to Johns Hopkins University.
In 1980, Blackburn identified telomere DNA, collaborating with Szostak in 1982 to show telomeres prevent chromosome degradation. In 1984, Blackburn and Greider discovered the enzyme telomerase, synthesizing telomeric DNA.

2014 – May-Britt Moser (January 4, 1963)
“for their discoveries of cells constituting a positioning system in the brain.”
After studying psychology at the University of Oslo and obtaining her doctorate in neurophysiology, Moser and her husband conducted research at Edinburgh University, UCL, and later the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim.
In 2005, they discovered grid cells near the hippocampus, forming a coordinate system aiding spatial navigation.

2015 – Tu Youyou (December 30, 1930)
“for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against malaria.”
A Chinese immunologist and pharmacologist, she was the first Chinese citizen to receive a Nobel Prize. Studying traditional herbs, she extracted artemisinin in the 1970s, significantly improving malaria treatments and saving millions.

2023 – Katalin Karikó (January 17, 1955)
“for discoveries enabling effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.”
In 2005, Karikó and Weissman discovered RNA modifications that prevented inflammation, enabling development of mRNA vaccines crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Editorial Team, Medscope.pro

Sources:
1. The Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. Available at: www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine
2. Hogg P. The 10 most influential women in the history of medicine. 8. 3. 2020. Available at: www.proclinical.com/blogs/2020-3/10-most-influential-women-in-history-of-science-and-medicine
3. Grubhoffer L., Grubhoffer V., Machala L. Od Jennera po Karikó [online]. [cit. 21. 2. 2025] 3. 5. 2021. Available at: www.vesmir.cz/cz/casopis/archiv-casopisu/2021/cislo-5/od-jennera-po-kariko.html