- Person
- Gertrude Elion
- Lived
- 1918–1999
- Field
- Pharmacology
- From
- American
The story
Gertrude Elion never finished a doctorate, but she became one of the most generous teachers in her field. Her own start had been hard: after graduating from Hunter College in 1937 she could not find a paid research job, and her first teaching was a three-month course in biochemistry for nurses, followed by two years teaching chemistry and physics in New York City high schools while she completed her master's degree at night.
At Burroughs Wellcome, where she worked from 1944 and headed the Department of Experimental Therapy from 1967, she made a point of supporting those under her. The Jewish Women's Archive notes that she encouraged junior scientists to publish their work and made sure they received the credit, instead of taking it herself as head of the laboratory.
In 1971 she became an adjunct professor of pharmacology and experimental medicine at Duke University, and after retiring from industry in 1983 she became a research professor of medicine and pharmacology there, a post she held until her death in 1999. In her Nobel autobiography she described working each year with a third-year medical student who wanted to do research in tumour biochemistry and pharmacology, and she said her career seemed to have come full circle, from her early days as a teacher to sharing her research experience with new generations of scientists.
She published more than 25 papers with the students she mentored at Duke. She also lent her experience to the National Cancer Institute, where she served on advisory committees and the National Cancer Advisory Board, and to advisory committees of the American Cancer Society and the Leukemia Society of America. One of her passions in these years was encouraging other women to pursue careers in science, and the Lemelson-MIT programme notes that she supported young women entering a field dominated by men.
By training young researchers in her methods, Elion multiplied her influence on medicine well beyond the drugs she created herself, passing on what she had learned in four decades of drug discovery.
Why it matters
By training young researchers in her methods, Elion multiplied her influence on medicine well beyond the drugs she created herself.
About Gertrude Elion
Chemist without a doctorate who pioneered rational drug design and created drugs for leukaemia, transplants, gout and herpes, sharing the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
More about Gertrude Elion
- Gertrude Elion's 6-MP gave children with leukaemia a chanceIn the early 1950s Gertrude Elion synthesised 6-mercaptopurine, one of the first effective drugs against acute leukaemia, then almost always fatal in children.
- Elion's team created acyclovir, a pioneering antiviralIn the 1970s Gertrude Elion's group developed acyclovir, the first selective and effective antiviral drug, which attacks herpes viruses while sparing healthy cells.
- Gertrude Elion's allopurinol still treats gout todayAllopurinol, developed in Gertrude Elion's laboratory, blocks the build-up of uric acid and remains a mainstay treatment for gout.
- Elion's azathioprine made kidney transplants workableGertrude Elion's laboratory produced azathioprine, the first widely used drug to stop the body rejecting a transplanted kidney from an unrelated donor.
- Researchers Elion trained helped develop AZTAfter Gertrude Elion retired in 1983, scientists she had trained, using her methods, developed AZT, one of the first drugs used to treat HIV/AIDS.
- Elion's chemistry also fought malaria and infectionsGertrude Elion's work with George Hitchings contributed to pyrimethamine against malaria and trimethoprim against bacterial infections.
- Gertrude Elion won a Nobel Prize without a doctorateTurned away from graduate funding, Gertrude Elion never completed a PhD, yet her rational drug design produced leukaemia, transplant and antiviral drugs and won the 1988 Nobel Prize.
Sources
- Gertrude B. Elion Wikipedia
- Gertrude B. Elion – Biographical NobelPrize.org
- Gertrude Elion Lemelson-MIT
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.