Agnes Ullmann (14 April 1927
– 25 February 2019) was a French
microbiologist
A microbiologist (from Ancient Greek, Greek ) is a scientist who studies microscopic life forms and processes. This includes study of the growth, interactions and characteristics of Microorganism, microscopic organisms such as bacteria, algae, f ...
.
Biography
Ullmann received her doctorate in microbiology from the
University of Budapest. After a research visit to
Institut Pasteur
The Pasteur Institute (french: Institut Pasteur) is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who invented pasteurization and vaccines fo ...
in 1958/59 working with
Jacques Monod, she moved to France in 1960 with the support of Monod, who smuggled her and her husband over the Austria/Hungary border in a Hungarian caravan.
[ A blog post by ]Sean B. Carroll
Sean B. Carroll (born September 17, 1960) is an American evolutionary developmental biologist, author, educator and executive producer. He is a distinguished university professor at the University of Maryland and professor emeritus of molecul ...
about his book on Monod, ''Brave Genius'', with photo from Ullmann With a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation she went to the laboratory of Monod at the Institut Pasteur, where she remained for the rest of her career. There she became a professor, laboratory director and in 1982 a member of the Board of Directors.
Ullmann initially dealt with the effects of antibiotics at the Institut Pasteur and was able to elucidate, among other things, the mode of action of
streptomycin (as an inhibitor of protein synthesis in bacteria). She also studied the effect of
Second Messenger
Second messengers are intracellular signaling molecules released by the cell in response to exposure to extracellular signaling molecules—the first messengers. (Intercellular signals, a non-local form or cell signaling, encompassing both first me ...
cAMP
Camp may refer to:
Outdoor accommodation and recreation
* Campsite or campground, a recreational outdoor sleeping and eating site
* a temporary settlement for nomads
* Camp, a term used in New England, Northern Ontario and New Brunswick to descri ...
in the bacterial cell.
In 1967 she showed that cAMP reverses
catabolite repression Carbon catabolite repression, or simply catabolite repression, is an important part of global control system of various bacteria and other microorganisms. Catabolite repression allows microorganisms to adapt quickly to a preferred (rapidly metaboli ...
in the bacterium ''
E. coli
''Escherichia coli'' (),Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. also known as ''E. coli'' (), is a Gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus ''Escher ...
''. Later, she discovered another factor that boosts catabolite repression (catabolite modulator factor, or CMF).
Ullmann subsequently dealt with the mode of action of the
whooping cough pathogen and its toxin. She showed that the toxin increases the cAMP production in the host cell and thus disturbs their metabolism. The ability of the toxin to provide other molecules with access to the attacked host cell also helped her to develop vaccines by coupling the genetically engineered
whooping cough toxin with antigenic fragments that were to be immunized against.
In 2002 she received the
Robert Koch Medal
The Robert Koch Medal and Award are two prizes awarded annually by the German for excellence in the biomedical sciences. These awards grew out of early attempts by German physician Robert Koch to generate funding to support his research into the ...
. She was an honorary member of the
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( hu, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, MTA) is the most important and prestigious learned society of Hungary. Its seat is at the bank of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. Its ma ...
and of the
European Academy of Microbiology (EAM). EAM President Philippe Sansonetti recalled all her contributions to microbiology in the "
n memoriam Agnes Ullmann
In 1978, with
André Lwoff, she published a collection of essays by Jacques Monod and she published two anthologies in memory of him.
Ullmann became a French citizen in 1966.
Works
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External links
*
*''Philippe Sansonetti (2019). "In memoriam Agnés Ullmann'' (1927-2019)", https://fems-microbiology.org/agnes-ullmann-1927-2019-c/
See also
*
Blue–white screen
The blue–white screen is a screening technique that allows for the rapid and convenient detection of recombinant bacteria in vector-based molecular cloning experiments. This method of screening is usually performed using a suitable bacterial ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ullmann, Agnes
20th-century biologists
20th-century French scientists
20th-century French women scientists
Women microbiologists
French microbiologists
1927 births
2019 deaths
French people of Hungarian-Jewish descent