Gertrude Elion

Hello everyone!

Gertrude Belle Elion was born on January 23rd, 1918 in New York. She was a pharmacologist and a biochemist. She graduated from Hunter College in 1937 and, later, from New York University in 1941. Due to the fact that she was unable to obtain a graduate research position, she decided to work as a laboratory assistant and as a high school teacher. Years later, she stopped working as an assistant to Georger H. Hitchings at Burroughs Welcome pharmaceutical company. 

Gertrude Elion and Hitchings

In her numerous researches, she and Hitchings used the differences in biochemistry between pathogens, which are agents that cause diseases, and normal human cells in order to design new chemicals that were able to inhibit or kill the reproduction of some specific pathogens without harming the host cells. Both of them achieved new effective drugs against leukemia, gout, urinary infections, malaria, herpesviral and several autoimmune diseases. 

Gertrude Elion receiving the  

Nobel Prize of Medicine

In 1988, Gertrude Elion, together with Sir James Black and Hitchings, received the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Moreover, she obtained other awards: the National Medal of Science in 1991 and the Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. Likewise, she became the first woman to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Finally, she died on February 21st, 1999.