ScienceToday

Gertrude Elion, Scientist

Gertrude Belle Elion was born on Jan. 23, 1918, in New York, N.Y., United States, being the daughter of two immigrants. She was a scientist and pharmacologist who won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1988 (alongside George H. Hitchings and Sir James W. Black), after they created several drugs for treating major diseases, including leukemia.

In 1937, Elion graduated college and got her degree in biochemistry, but she struggled very much to find a graduate research position in this field because she was a woman in a world full of men.

She started working as a lab assistant in 1937 at the New York Hospital School of Nursing, following a job as an assistant chemist at the Denver Chemical Manufacturing Company. In 1940, she started working as a physics and chemistry teacher in New York City, until she was given a research chemist post at the Johnson & Johnson company in 1943.

One year later, she was given another job at the Burroughs Wellcome Laboratories where she worked with George H. Hitchings on creating new drugs to treat severe health conditions. The two worked together for more than four decades, time in which they’ve been able to contribute to the discovery of new drugs fr treating leukemia, malaria, gout, autoimmune disorders, viral herpes, and urinary tract infections.

They also analyzed the difference between the biochemistry of normal human cells and other cancer cells, viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens. Their findings contributed to creating proper medication for treating these diseases.

Gertrude Elion also participated in the development of azidothymidine (AZT), which is the first drug used to treat AIDS, even though she already retired. As an appreciation for her incredible work that changed our world, Elion received the National Medal of Science and was introduced into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

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