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 (born June 28, 1931) is a British scientist. She is famous for her work in biochemistry and crystallography. These fields help us understand how living things work at a very tiny level. Since 1956, she has worked at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in the United States. This center is a special place for cancer research. She also taught at the University of Pennsylvania.
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About Jenny Glusker
Jenny Pickworth was born in Birmingham, England, on June 28, 1931. 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. Later, she worked in Birmingham, where she met and married Jenny's father.
Her Education and Early Work
Jenny loved chemistry from a young age. Her chemistry teacher and her mother's textbooks inspired her. Her parents wanted her to study medicine. But Jenny wanted to study chemistry. She made a deal with her father. She would 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. Her mentor was Dorothy Hodgkin, a very famous scientist. Jenny helped Hodgkin study the structure of a part of vitamin B12. This work later helped Hodgkin win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964.
Moving to the United States
While at Oxford, Jenny met Donald L. Glusker, an American chemist. They got married in the United States in 1955. They both moved to Caltech in California to do more research. There, Jenny worked in the lab of Linus Pauling, another famous scientist.
In 1956, Jenny and her husband moved to Philadelphia. She started working at the Institute for Cancer Research (now Fox Chase Cancer Center). At first, she worked part-time to raise her three children. After her boss, Arthur Lindo Patterson, passed away in 1966, Jenny took over his lab. She became a faculty member at the Institute. She became a Senior Member (like a full professor) in 1979. She retired in 2003 but is still a professor emerita there.
Her Important Research
At the cancer research center, Jenny Glusker studied the tiny structures of molecules. She looked at how enzymes work. Enzymes are like tiny machines in our bodies that help chemical reactions happen. She helped us understand how enzymes work in the citric acid cycle. This cycle is very important for how our bodies get energy.
Later, her lab studied anti-tumor agents. These are substances that fight cancer. They also looked at carcinogens. These are substances that can cause cancer. For example, they studied polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. She also studied an enzyme called xylose isomerase. In 1972, Jenny Glusker and Helen M. Berman studied how medicines interact with DNA. This helped scientists understand how anti-cancer drugs and mutagens (things that change DNA) 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, where she studied.
Selected Publications
Jenny Glusker has written or helped write several important books about crystallography:
- By Kenneth N. Trueblood: Crystal Structure Analysis:. A primer (3rd Edition, Oxford University Press, 2010). ISBN: 978-0199576340.
- With Dan McLachlan (editor): Crystallography in North America (American Crystallographic Association, 1983). ISBN: 978-0937140079.
- With Mitchell Lewis, Miriam Rossi: Crystal Structure Analysis for Chemists and Biologists (VCH, 1994). ISBN: 978-0895732736.
See also
In Spanish: Jenny Glusker para niños
