Marguerite Lwoff


Marguerite Lwoff, née Bourdaleix was a French microbiologist and virologist known for her studies of metabolism. She partnered with her husband, André Lwoff, throughout their careers, but was not awarded the Nobel Prize he was given in 1965. Her career began with studies of ciliates and continued with major research on the Apostomatida. In 1929, the Lwoffs were awarded a laboratory at the Pasteur Institute, where they studied Haemophilus metabolism and discovered the role of cozymase. Marguerite Lwoff published her solo research in 1940 on trypanosome metabolism, where she elucidated the role of hematin. Though the Lwoffs continued their partnership, Andre began to receive more and more credit and Marguerite was generally discounted as simply a technician.