Who was Gertrude B. Elion?

Gertrude B. Elion was an American pharmacologist, who won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Medicine, along with George H. Hitchings and Sir James W. Black, for pioneering work in drug development.

Gertrude B. Elion was born in New York City in 1918. She graduated from Hunter College in New York City with the degree in biochemistry in 1937. Unable to obtain graduate research position, she took up jobs as a secretary, a chemistry teacher, and an assistant in a lab. During this time, she pursued graduate studies at night school in the New York University. As she could not devote herself to full-time studies, Elion never received a PhD.

In 1944, she started to work as an assistant (and later became a colleague) to George H. Hitchings at the Burroughs-Wellcome pharmaceutical company (now GlaxoSmithKline). Elion and Hitchings developed an array of new drugs that were effective against leukemia, auto immune disorders, urinary tract infection, gout, malaria, and viral herpes. They revolutionised the way drugs were being developed. Their unique method involved studying the chemical composition of diseased cells. Rather than relying on trial and error methods, they used the differences in biochemistry between normal human cells and pathogens (disease causing agents) to design drugs that block viral infections. Elion also discovered treatments to reduce the body’s rejection of foreign tissue in kidney transplants between unrelated donors. In all, Elion developed 45 patents in medicine. In 1991 she was awarded a National Medal of Science and was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

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