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Gertrude B. Elion was an American pharmacologist who, along with George H. Hitchings and Sir James W. Black, received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1988 for their development of drugs used to treat several major diseases.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Synopsis
- Early Years
- Career as A Chemist
- Private Life
- A Life Well Lived
Born in New York in 1918, scientist Gertrude B. Elion had an impressive career, during which she helped develop drugs to treat many major diseases, including malaria and AIDS. She won a Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1988. Gertrude Elion died on February 21, 1999, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Born to immigrant parents in New York City, Gertrude Elion spent her early youth in Manhattan, where her father had a dental practice. When her brother was born, the family moved to the Bronx. She attended high school and excelled with, in her words, an "insatiable thirst for knowledge." Motivated by the death of her grandfather, who died of cancer...
The start of World War II created more opportunities for women in industry. Elion was able to obtain a few quality-control jobs in food and consumer-product companies before being hired at Burroughs-Wellcome (now GlaxoSmithKline) in 1944, where she began a 40-year partnership with Dr. George H. Hitchings. Her thirst for knowledge impressed Dr. Hitc...
Elion admitted that her work was her life, but she also enjoyed photography and travel, both products of her curiosity about life. She also enjoyed opera, ballet and theater. Though she never married, she enjoyed being the "favorite aunt" to her brother's children.
Gertrude Elion officially retired in 1983, but she remained active, holding the titles of scientist emeritus and consultant at her old company. She also served as an adviser for the World Health Organization and the American Association for Cancer Research. In 1988, Elion received the Nobel Prize in Medicine, together with George Hitchings and Sir ...
Gertrude "Trudy" [2] Belle Elion (January 23, 1918 – February 21, 1999) was an American biochemist and pharmacologist, who shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with George H. Hitchings and Sir James Black for their use of innovative methods of rational drug design for the development of new drugs. [3]
May 23, 2024 · Gertrude Belle Elion was a twentieth-century scientist in the US who researched the structure of viral DNA to help develop anti-viral medications. In the 1970s, Elion helped to develop acyclovir, an early anti-viral medication, alongside a team of other researchers.
Jun 3, 2021 · Elion’s 6-MP propelled the early development of chemotherapy, as it was the first drug to successfully treat childhood leukemia, and it is still commonly used in chemotherapy regimens today. In addition to 6-MP, Elion discovered many other life-saving compounds based on the purine structure.
On the Road to the Nobel. In addition to 6-MP, Elion went on to discover a series of drugs that attack the life cycle of nucleic acid, including allopurinol—which inhibits uric acid synthesis, making it a viable treatment for gout—and azathioprine (Imuran), an effective immunosuppressive drug.
She discovered that treating childhood leukemia with a combination of 6-MP and one of several other drugs is more effective than using 6-MP alone. This method of treatment cures most patients. Other Drug Successes. After this success Hitchings and Elion developed a number of additional drugs by using the same principle that had led them to 6-MP.
