Jenny Glusker facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jenny P. Glusker
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1979
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| Born | 28 June 1931 Birmingham, England
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| Awards | Garvan–Olin Medal (1979) John Scott Medal (2011) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Crystallography, biochemistry |
| Institutions | Fox Chase Cancer Center University of Pennsylvania |
| Notable students | Miriam Rossi Helen M. Berman |
Jenny Pickworth Glusker was born in Britain on June 28, 1931. She is a famous scientist who studies biochemistry and crystallography. Biochemistry is about the chemistry of living things. Crystallography is the study of how atoms are arranged in crystals.
Since 1956, Dr. Glusker has worked at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in the United States. This center is a special place for cancer research. She was also a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
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About Jenny Glusker
Jenny Pickworth was born in Birmingham, England. She was the oldest of three children. Both of her parents were doctors. Her father, Frederick Alfred Pickworth, was a chemist who also studied medicine. He did research on the brain. Her mother, Jane Wylie Stocks, was from Scotland. She studied medicine in Glasgow. She worked in Dublin in the 1920s before moving to Birmingham. There, she married Frederick Alfred Pickworth.
Early Life and Education
Jenny loved chemistry from a young age. Her chemistry teacher and her mother's textbooks helped her develop this interest. Her parents wanted her to study medicine. She agreed to go to medical school if she didn't get into Somerville College at the University of Oxford.
Luckily, she passed her entrance exam for Oxford. She earned her first degree in chemistry in 1953. Later, she got her doctorate degree in 1957. She worked with a famous scientist named Dorothy Hodgkin. Dr. Hodgkin won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964. Jenny Glusker helped her with important research on vitamin B12.
Career and Family Life
While studying at Oxford, Jenny met Donald L. Glusker. He was an American chemist. They got married in the United States in 1955. They both went to Caltech in California for more research. Jenny Glusker worked in the lab of Linus Pauling, another Nobel Prize winner.
In 1956, Jenny and her husband moved to Philadelphia. She started working at the Institute for Cancer Research (ICR). This place is now called the Fox Chase Cancer Center. At first, she worked part-time. This allowed her to raise her three children.
After her boss, Arthur Lindo Patterson, passed away in 1966, Jenny Glusker took over his lab. She became a junior faculty member. She became a full member of the Institute for Cancer Research in 1977. In 1979, she became a Senior Member. She retired in 2003. Today, she is a professor emerita, which means she is a retired professor who keeps her title.
Scientific Discoveries
At the ICR, Dr. Glusker studied the structure of small molecules. These molecules are part of the citric acid cycle, which is important for how our bodies get energy. Her work helped scientists understand how enzymes work. Enzymes are like tiny machines that help chemical reactions happen in our bodies.
Later, her lab studied anti-tumor agents. These are substances that fight cancer. They also looked at chemicals that can cause cancer. She also studied an enzyme called xylose isomerase. In 1972, Dr. Glusker and Helen M. Berman studied how medicines interact with DNA. This helped scientists understand how anti-cancer drugs work.
Awards and Honors
Jenny Glusker has received many important awards for her scientific work:
- 1979: Garvan–Olin Medal from the American Chemical Society.
- 1995: Fankuchen Award from the American Crystallographic Association.
- 2011: John Scott Medal from the Philadelphia City Council.
- 2014: William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement.
She is also an Honorary Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford.
Books and Publications
Dr. Glusker has written several important books about crystallography:
- Crystal Structure Analysis: A primer (with Kenneth N. Trueblood). The third edition was published in 2010.
- Crystallography in North America (edited with Dan McLachlan) in 1983.
- Crystal Structure Analysis for Chemists and Biologists (with Mitchell Lewis and Miriam Rossi) in 1994.
See also
In Spanish: Jenny Glusker para niños
