Agnes Ullmann

The native form of this personal name is Ullmann Ágnes. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.
Agnes Ullmann
Born(1927-04-14)14 April 1927
Satu Mare, Romania
Died25 February 2019(2019-02-25) (aged 91)
Paris, France
CitizenshipFrench
EducationBudapest University
AwardsRobert Koch Medal (2002)
Scientific career
FieldsMicrobiology
InstitutionsInstitut Pasteur

Agnes Ullmann (14 April 1927[1] – 25 February 2019) was a Hungarian-French microbiologist who worked at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the Pasteur Institute. She is known for her pioneering work in understanding the regulation of gene expression in operon systems.

Early life and education

Agnes Ullmann was born on 14 April 1927 in Satu Mare, Transylvania, at the time classed as Hungary, now in Romania. Her family were Jewish Hungarian. She became interested in microbiology after her father's birthday gift of Paul de Kruif ’s book Microbe Hunters. She briefly studied at the University of Cluj, but left to earn her doctorate in microbiology from the University of Budapest.[2]

Career

After a research visit to Institut Pasteur 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.[3][4] 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 cAMP in the bacterial cell.[5] In 1967 she showed that cAMP reverses catabolite repression in the bacterium E. coli. 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.[6]

In 2002 she received the Robert Koch Medal. She was an honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and of the European Academy of Microbiology (EAM). EAM President Philippe Sansonetti recalled all her contributions to microbiology in the "In memoriam Agnes Ullmann" [7]

In 1978, with André Lwoff, she published a collection of essays by Jacques Monod[8] and she published two anthologies in memory of him.[9][10]

Ullmann became a French citizen in 1966.[6]

Legacy

In 2026, Ullman was announced as one of 72 historical women in STEM whose names have been proposed to be added to the 72 men already celebrated on the Eiffel Tower. The plan was announced by the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo following the recommendations of a committee led by Isabelle Vauglin of Femmes et Sciences and Jean-François Martins, representing the operating company which runs the Eiffel Tower.[11][12]

Works

  • Ullmann, Agnès; Lwoff, André, eds. (2003). Origins of molecular biology : a tribute to Jacques Monod. Washington, D.C: ASM Press. ISBN 1-55581-281-3. OCLC 53138790.
  • Quagliariello, Ernesto; Bernardi, Giorgio; Ullmann, Agnes, eds. (1987). From enzyme adaptation to natural philosophy: heritage from Jacques Monod — proceedings of the Symposium "Jacques Monod and Molecular Biology, Yesterday and Today" held in Trani, Italy, 13-15 December 1986. Amsterdam; New York: Elsevier Science. ISBN 0-444-80887-6. OCLC 15631828.
  • Ullmann, Agnès; Danchin, Antoine; Gasser, Francis, eds. (1986). Régulation de l'expression génétique : rôle de l'AMP cyclique (in French). Paris: Hermann. ISBN 2-7056-1416-8. OCLC 14962384.
  • Ullmann, Agnes; Jacob, François; Monod, Jacques (1967). "Characterization by in vitro complementation of a peptide corresponding to an operator-proximal segment of the β-galactosidase structural gene of Escherichia coli". Journal of Molecular Biology. 24 (2). Elsevier BV: 339–343. doi:10.1016/0022-2836(67)90341-5. ISSN 0022-2836. PMID 5339877.

See also

References

  1. ^ "ISNI 0000000066423234 Agnes Ullmann (born 1928 - died February 25, 2019, Paris 16e (France))". ISNI. 15 December 1986. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
  2. ^ Hargittai, István; Hargittai, Balazs (2023-03-15), "Agnes Ullmann", Brilliance in Exile, Central European University Press, pp. 299–302, doi:10.1515/9789633866078-057/pdf?licenseType=restricted#federation=archive.wikiwix.com&tab=url, ISBN 978-963-386-607-8, retrieved 2026-02-05{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
  3. ^ "The Main Characters". Sean B. Carroll. Retrieved 16 October 2018. A blog post by Sean B. Carroll about his book on Monod, Brave Genius, with photo from Ullmann
  4. ^ Ullmann, Agnes (13 October 2012). "A Fortunate Journey on Uneven Grounds". Annual Review of Microbiology. 66 (1). Annual Reviews: 1–24. doi:10.1146/annurev-micro-092611-150133. ISSN 0066-4227. PMID 22994486.
  5. ^ "Ullmann, Multiple action of cAMP: from gene regulation to bacterial virulence, Robert Koch Foundation Lecture on the occasion of the Koch Medal 2002". Archived from the original on 3 October 2003.
  6. ^ a b Kurth 2002.
  7. ^ "Ullman Agnes". Hungarian Academy of Sciences (in Hungarian). Retrieved 16 October 2018.
  8. ^ Ullman and Lwoff (eds.) 2003.
  9. ^ Quagliariello, Bernardi, and Ullmann (eds.) 1987.
  10. ^ Ullman (ed.) 1986.
  11. ^ "Eiffel Tower: a list of 72 women scientists will soon be inscribed on the Parisian monument". www.sortiraparis.com. Retrieved 2026-02-05.
  12. ^ "Eiffel Tower to honor 72 women scientists for posterity". 2026-01-26. Retrieved 2026-02-05.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.