Gertrude B. Elion

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Gertrude Elion
Elion in 1983
Born
Gertrude Belle Elion

(1918-01-23)January 23, 1918
New York City, United States
DiedFebruary 21, 1999(1999-02-21) (aged 81)
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, US
Alma materHunter College
New York University
Awards
Scientific career
Institutions
Websitewww.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1988/elion-bio.html

Gertrude "Trudy"

acyclovir (ACV), used in the treatment of herpes infection.[4]

Early life and education

Elion was born in

summa cum laude in 1937 with a degree in chemistry.[2][11] Unable to find a paying research job after graduating because she was female, Elion worked as a secretary and high school teacher before working in an unpaid position at a chemistry lab. Eventually, she saved up enough money to attend New York University and she earned her M.Sc. in 1941, while working as a high school teacher during the day.[12] In an interview after receiving her Nobel Prize, she stated that she believed the sole reason she was able to further her education as a young female was because she was able to attend Hunter College for free.[13] Her fifteen financial aid applications for graduate school were turned down due to gender bias, so she enrolled in a secretarial school, where she attended only six weeks before she found a job.[5]
: 65 

Unable to obtain a graduate research position, she worked as a food quality supervisor at

purines, and in 1950, she developed the anti-cancer drugs tioguanine and mercaptopurine.[7][5]
: 66 

She pursued graduate studies at night school at

Harvard
University in 1998.

Personal life

Soon after graduating from Hunter College, Elion met Leonard Canter, an outstanding statistics student at

bacterial endocarditis, an infection of his heart valves.[21]
In her Nobel interview, she stated that this furthered her drive to become a research scientist and pharmacologist.

Elion never married or had children.[5]: 65  However, her brother, whom she was close with, married and had three sons and a daughter that she took pride in being able to watch grow. She listed her hobbies as photography, travel, opera and ballet, and listening to music.[22] After Burroughs Wellcome moved to Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, Elion moved to nearby Chapel Hill. She retired in 1983 from Burroughs Wellcome to spend more time traveling and attending the opera. She continued to make important scientific contributions after her retirement.[7] One of her passions during this time was encouraging other women to pursue careers in science.[23]

Gertrude Elion died in North Carolina in 1999, aged 81.[5]: 76 

Career and research

While Elion had many jobs to support herself and put herself through school, Elion had also worked for the

Burroughs Wellcome
. She officially retired from Burroughs and Wellcome in 1983.

She was affiliated with Duke University as adjunct professor of pharmacology and of experimental medicine from 1971 to 1983 and research professor from 1983 to 1999.[24] During her time at Duke, she focused on mentoring medical and graduate students. She published more than 25 papers with the students she mentored at Duke.[23]

Even after her retirement from Burroughs Wellcome, Gertrude continued almost full-time work at the lab. She played a significant role in the development of AZT, one of the first drugs used to treat HIV and AIDS.[12] She also was crucial in the development of nelarabine, which she worked on until her death in 1999.[7]

Rather than relying on trial and error, Elion and Hitchings discovered new drugs using rational drug design, which used the differences in biochemistry and metabolism between normal human cells and

acyclovir, which was the first selective and effective drug of its kind).[26] Most of Elion's early work came from the use and development of purine
derivatives. Elion's research contributed to the development of:

Selected works by Gertrude B. Elion

  • Elion GB; Hitchins GH; Vanderwerff H (1951). "Antagonists of Nucleic Acid Derivatives. VI. Purines" (PDF). Journal of Biological Chemistry. 192 (2): 505–518.
    PMID 14907641
    .
  • “Interaction of Anticancer Drugs with Enzymes.” In Pharmacological Basis of Cancer Chemotherapy (1975).
  • Elion, G. (1989). "The Purine Path to Chemotherapy". Science. 244 (4900): 41–47.
    PMID 2649979
    .
  • Elion, G. B.; Furman, P. A.; Fyfe, J. A.; Miranda, P. d.; Beauchamp, L.; Schaeffer, H. J. (1977). "Selectivity of Action of an Antiherpetic Agent, 9-(2-hydroxyethoxymethyl) guanine". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 74 (12): 5716–5720.
    PMID 202961
    .
  • Elion, Gertrude B.; Hitchings, George H. (1955). "The Synthesis of 6-Thioguanine". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 77 (6): 1676.
    doi:10.1021/ja01611a082
    .

Awards and honors

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".[29] 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.[25] She was the only woman honored with a Nobel Prize that year. She was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1990,[30] a member of the

Institute of Medicine in 1991[31] and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences also in 1991.[32]

Her awards include the

Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1995.[1]

See also

References

  1. ^
    doi:10.1098/rsbm.2007.0051
    .
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Gertrude Elion | Jewish Women's Archive". jwa.org. Retrieved April 9, 2019.
  3. ^ Adams, Patrick, Meet the woman who gave the world antiviral drugs, National Geographic, August 31, 2020
  4. doi:10.1016/S0021-9258(20)59806-2
    . Retrieved January 25, 2018.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Stille, Darlene R. (1995). Extraordinary Women Scientists. Childrens Press.
  6. American Academy of Achievement
    .
  7. ^
    PMID 17030634
    .
  8. ^ Larsen, Kristine. "Gertrude Elion 1918–1999". Jewish Women's Archive Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 1, 2016.
  9. ^ Bertha and Gertrude Elion | Jewish Women's Archive. Jwa.org. Retrieved on May 12, 2014.
  10. ^ Colburn, Don (October 25, 1988). "PATHWAY TO THE PRIZE". Washington Post. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
  11. ^ a b Elion, Gertrude. "Les Prix Nobel". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved February 21, 2014.
  12. ^
    ISSN 0080-4606
    .
  13. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1988". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  14. ^ "Autobiography of Elion at NobelPrize.org". Nobel.se. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
  15. ^ "Biographical Memoirs Home". nasonline.org. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
  16. ^ "Gertrude Elion - Jewish Women's Archive". JWA.org. Archived from the original on May 19, 2018. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
  17. ^ Altman, Lawrence K. (February 23, 1999). "Gertrude Elion, Drug Developer, Dies at 81". The New York Times. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
  18. ^ Gertrude B. Elion, Biography of Gertrude B. Elion, Jewish Women Encyclopedia
  19. ^ Bouton, Katherine (January 29, 1989). "The Nobel Pair". The New York Times. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
  20. ^ a b c d e f g "George Hitchings and Gertrude Elion". Science History Institute. June 2016. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
  21. ^ McDowell, Julie L. (2002). "A lifetime quest for a cure" (PDF). Modern Drug Discovery (October): 51–52. Retrieved February 14, 2018.
  22. ^ Staff (1988). "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1988: Sir James W. Black, Gertrude B. Elion, George H. Hitchings". Nobelprize.org. Retrieved October 20, 2012.
  23. ^
    S2CID 45055062
    .
  24. ISBN 978-1598841589
    .
  25. ^ a b "Gertrude Elion | Jewish Women's Archive". jwa.org. Archived from the original on May 19, 2018. Retrieved April 9, 2019.
  26. ISBN 978-0-309-06568-9
    .
  27. ^ Marx, Vivien (2005). "6-Mercaptopurine". Chemical & Engineering News. Retrieved October 20, 2012.
  28. PMID 17030634
    .
  29. ISBN 978-0-309-06568-9
    .
  30. ^ "Gertrude B. Elion". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
  31. ^ "Directory: IOM Member – Gertrude B. Elion, M.S." Institute of Medicine. Retrieved July 26, 2014.[permanent dead link]
  32. ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter E" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved July 25, 2014.
  33. ^ "Francis P. Garvan–John M. Olin Medal". American Chemical Society. Retrieved February 14, 2018.
  34. American Academy of Achievement
    .
  35. ^ Staff. "The President's National Medal of Science: Recipient Details: Gertrude B. Elion". National Science Foundation. Retrieved October 20, 2012.
  36. ^ "$100,000 Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award Winners" (PDF). MIT Technology Review Custom + Lemelson-MIT Program. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 29, 2019. Retrieved February 14, 2018.
  37. ^ Staff. "Invent Now: Hall of Fame: Gertrude Belle Elion". National Inventors Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on September 1, 2012. Retrieved October 20, 2012.
  38. ^ "Elion, Gertrude Belle". National Women's Hall of Fame. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
  39. ISBN 978-0-309-06568-9
    .

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gertrude Elion.
Wikiquote has quotations related to Gertrude B. Elion.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gertrude_B._Elion&oldid=1217661592"