Marjorie Roloff Stetten (née Roloff; 1915 − May 19, 1983) was an American

biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and Cell (biology), cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of ...

whose carbohydrate metabolism research led to the advancements in biomedical knowledge of enzymes and biosynthesis and the discovery of

AICA ribonucleotide 5-Aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribonucleotide (AICAR) is an intermediate in the generation of inosine monophosphate. AICAR is an analog of adenosine monophosphate (AMP) that is capable of stimulating AMP-dependent protein kinase (AMPK) activity. ...

. During her career, she was an investigator at the National Institutes of Health and a research professor of experimental medicine at Rutgers Medical School.

Education

Roloff was born in 1915 in New York City to Belle and George F. Roloff. Her paternal grandparents were from Germany. She graduated from Westfield High School. Roloff completed a B.S. from Douglass Residential College in 1937. She earned a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1944. She was a member of Sigma Xi and Phi Beta Kappa. Her dissertation was titled, ''The metabolism of l(-)-pioIihe studied with the aid of deuterium and isotopic nitrogen''.

Rudolph Schoenheimer Rudolf Schoenheimer (May 10, 1898 – September 11, 1941) was a German-American biochemist who developed the technique of isotope labelling/''tagging'' of biomolecules, enabling detailed study of metabolism. This work revealed that all the cons ...

was Stetten's doctoral advisor.

Career

Stetten held positions at Columbia University and Harvard Medical School. She worked as an associate in the division of nutrition and physiology at the

Public Health Research Institute The Public Health Research Institute (PHRI) was founded in 1942 by New York City's mayor, Fiorello La Guardia, who appointed David M. Heyman to lead it as an independent not-for-profit research organization. In the late 1980s it was referred to ...

. Her early research focused on the mechanisms of purine biosynthesis and protein synthesis. She discovered

and carried out some of the earliest studies of hydroxyproline biosynthesis. In 1954, she came to the

National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ...

and continued her biochemical work conducting classical studies on the structure of

glycogen Glycogen is a multibranched polysaccharide of glucose that serves as a form of energy storage in animals, fungi, and bacteria. The polysaccharide structure represents the main storage form of glucose in the body. Glycogen functions as one o ...

. From 1963 to 1971, Stetten worked at the Rutgers Medical School as a research professor of experimental medicine. She returned to the National Institutes of Health in the intermediary metabolism section of the laboratory of biochemistry and metabolism in 1971. Stetten studied carbohydrate metabolism in mammalian livers, extending these studies to the horseshoe crab and the

American lobster The American lobster (''Homarus americanus'') is a species of lobster found on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of North America, chiefly from Labrador to New Jersey. It is also known as Atlantic lobster, Canadian lobster, true lobster, norther ...

. Most of these studies were on the catalytic activities of the enzyme glucose-6-phosphatase. Stetten was a member of the executive committee and board of trustees of the Marine Biological Laboratory. She was a member of the

American Society of Biological Chemists The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) is a learned society that was founded on December 26, 1906, at a meeting organized by John Jacob Abel (Johns Hopkins University). The roots of the society were in the American P ...

Personal life

In 1940, Roloff and

DeWitt Stetten Jr. Dewitt Stetten Jr. (May 31, 1909 – August 28, 1990) was an American biochemist. Stetten was dean of the medical school of Rutgers University, president of the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences, and a member of the Nati ...

were engaged. They had four children. She was interested in the arts and was an amateur historian of the

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...

and Tudor period. She died on May 19, 1983.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stetten, Marjorie Roloff 1983 deaths American women biochemists 20th-century American biochemists Scientists from New York City American people of German descent Rutgers University alumni Columbia University alumni Rutgers University faculty National Institutes of Health people American medical researchers American women medical researchers 1915 births 20th-century American women scientists American women academics