TY - JOUR
T1 - A Feeling for the Human Subject
T2 - Margaret Lasker and the Genetic Puzzle of Pentosuria
AU - Kirsh, Nurit
AU - Green, L. Joanne
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.
PY - 2021/6
Y1 - 2021/6
N2 - In 1933 Margaret Lasker, a biochemist who worked at the labs of Montefiore Hospital in New York, developed an accurate method for the differentiation between pentosuria and diabetes. Research into pentosuria, and mostly its genetic aspects, became Lasker’s lifelong passion. Since research was not part of her job description, she conducted the chief part of her study in her home kitchen. Lasker’s extensive and personal correspondence with her patients and their families may be the secret key for her success in maintaining a prolonged research career against all odds. Laker’s last article was published in 1955 in Human Biology, presenting data on 72 cases of pentosuria, which occurs almost exclusively in Ashkenazi Jews. More than half a century later, and long after Lasker was gone, her well kept data and family records allowed the discovery of two mutations in the DCXR gene, by Mary-Claire King and her team.
AB - In 1933 Margaret Lasker, a biochemist who worked at the labs of Montefiore Hospital in New York, developed an accurate method for the differentiation between pentosuria and diabetes. Research into pentosuria, and mostly its genetic aspects, became Lasker’s lifelong passion. Since research was not part of her job description, she conducted the chief part of her study in her home kitchen. Lasker’s extensive and personal correspondence with her patients and their families may be the secret key for her success in maintaining a prolonged research career against all odds. Laker’s last article was published in 1955 in Human Biology, presenting data on 72 cases of pentosuria, which occurs almost exclusively in Ashkenazi Jews. More than half a century later, and long after Lasker was gone, her well kept data and family records allowed the discovery of two mutations in the DCXR gene, by Mary-Claire King and her team.
KW - Biochemistry of Sugars
KW - Diabetes
KW - Gender
KW - Human genetics
KW - Montefiore Hospital
KW - Pentosuria
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85109824893&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10739-021-09642-9
DO - 10.1007/s10739-021-09642-9
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C2 - 34244897
AN - SCOPUS:85109824893
SN - 0022-5010
VL - 54
SP - 247
EP - 274
JO - Journal of the History of Biology
JF - Journal of the History of Biology
IS - 2
ER -