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Drug acyclovir
- Born in 1918 in Manhattan, Gertrude Elion developed the drug acyclovir, a potent inhibitor of herpes viruses with remarkably low toxicity, which her team unveiled in 1978.
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Gertrude B. Elion (born Jan. 23, 1918, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Feb. 21, 1999, Chapel Hill, N.C.) 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
In 1988 Elion received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, together with Hitchings and Sir James Black for discoveries of "important new principles of drug treatment". Elion was the fifth female Nobel laureate in Medicine and the ninth in science in general, and one of only a handful of laureates without a doctoral degree.
Apr 2, 2014 · American biochemist and pharmacologist Gertrude B. Elion helped develop drugs to treat leukemia and prevent kidney transplant rejection. She won a Nobel Prize for medicine in 1988.
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.
Feb 22, 1999 · October 1988: Medical researchers Gertrude B. Elion and George Hitchings after winning Nobel Prize in Medicine. Over the years, Elion’s explorations had expanded from her original background in organic chemistry to encompass biochemistry, pharmacology, immunology, and finally virology.
Hitchings assigned Elion to investigate the purines, including adenine and guanine, two of DNA’s building blocks, and their role in nucleic acid metabolism in cells. They soon discovered that bacterial cells required certain purines in order to make DNA.
Jun 27, 2018 · Elion’s work culminated in a great discovery, that of the strong antiherpetic action of acyclovir. From 1967 on, she headed Burroughs Wellcome’s Experimental Therapy Department. Her name appeared on forty-five patents. She received twenty-five honorary doctorates and was elected president of the American Association for Cancer Research.
