Background
Grunberg-Manago, Marianne was born on January 6, 1921 in Petrograd, Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics. Daughter of Vladimir Grunberg and Catherine Riasanoff.
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Marianne Grunberg-Manago
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Marianne Grunberg-Manago, Russian biochemist. Member American Association for the Advancement of Science (foreign), International Union Biochemistry (president 1985-1988), Society Biological Chemistry, American Society Biological Chemists, International Council of Scientific Unions, New York Academy of Sciences, Academy of Sciences (France).
Education
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.
Career
Her work helped make possible key discoveries about the nature of the genetic code. When she was 9 months old, Grunberg-Manago"s parents emigrated from the Soviet Union to France. Initially, everyone thought the new enzyme was an Ribonucleic acid polymerase used by East. coli cells to make long chains of Ribonucleic acid 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 breakdown of Ribonucleic acid, 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 Ribonucleic acid 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. 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.
Late in her career, Grunberg-Manago was named emeritus director of research at National Center for Scientific Research, France’s National Center for Scientific Research.
Grunberg-Manago died in January, 2013, three days before her 92nd birthday.
Achievements
Membership
French Academy of Sciences. National Academy of Sciences. Academy of Sciences of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics.
American Academy of Arts and Sciences]
Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (1964)
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 International Council for Science
Foreign member of the New York Academy of Sciences (1977)
Foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States (1982)
Honorary foreign member of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics 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).
Interests
Connections
Married Armand Manago, 1948 (deceased). Two children.
