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Funding to support the advancement of the chemical sciences through research projects. ACS-Hach Programs Learn about financial support for future and current high school chemistry teachers. Gertrude Elion — and colleague George Hitchings — went off the beaten path of trial-and-error drug development to revolutionize drug making.
In , she graduated summa cum laude from Hunter College with a degree in chemistry, but her hopes of becoming a research scientist were dashed by 15 rejections for financial assistance from graduate schools throughout the country. While volunteering in a chemistry lab that could only offer her a dishwashing job, an opportunity opened up at Burroughs Wellcome Company.
This enabled her to save money for graduate work at New York University, where she was the only woman in her chemistry classes. Later that year, Elion was offered another position working with nucleic acids alongside Hitchings at Burroughs Wellcome Company. She also enrolled as a doctoral student at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute now Polytechnic Institute of New York University , where she took evening courses.
Faced with a decision to enroll full-time to complete a Ph. The introduction of sulfa drugs inspired him to consider that other substances that interfere with the metabolism of microbes could also be developed as drugs. His approach was to observe the differences in nucleic acid DNA and RNA metabolism among protozoa, normal human cells, and abnormal cells e. Hoping to develop drugs that selectively block the growth of cancer cells and poisonous organisms, Hitchings assigned Elion to investigate organic compounds called purines—specifically, the purine bases adenine and guanine, which are building blocks of DNA.
They soon discovered, from observing the role of purines in nucleic acid metabolism, that bacterial cells require certain purines to make DNA. She studied chemistry at Hunter College and New York University, but, as a woman, had difficulty finding work as a chemist. During World War II a lack of chemists arose because many men had joined the war, which led Gertrude Elion to find work at a laboratory.
In the mids she moved to Burroughs Wellcome's research laboratory, now GlaxoSmithKline, where she remained until her death. Gertrude Elion's research revolutionized both the development of new pharmaceuticals and the field of medicine in general.
Previously, pharmaceuticals had primarily been produced from natural substances. Although Elion claimed to have had little to do with AZT, her methodology had laid the groundwork for its discovery. Over the years, Elion's career prospered. Despite some tensions in their relationship , George Hitchings proved not only an invaluable research partner but also a helpful mentor.
Unlike many prominent scientists, he encouraged his assistants to write their own papers, and within two years, Elion began to publish the findings of her research; over the course of her career, she published over papers. Hitchings also promoted her behind him up the ladder at Burroughs Wellcome.
Eventually, Elion had a large department of assistants working for her. Notwithstanding her achievements, Hitchings knew that Elion was still sensitive about her lack of official academic qualifications, and he hoped that membership in the distinguished American Society of Biological Chemists would be some compensation.
With three strikes against her—she was a woman, had no doctorate, and was employed in industry rather than academia—her nomination appeared unlikely, but Hitchings pushed hard and was able to secure it in the early s, after the publication of her twentieth article. Elion's prestige continued to grow. In , she won the American Chemical Society's Garvan Medal ; in , when she was named Head of Experimental Therapy, she became the first woman to lead a major research group at Burroughs Wellcome.
Two years later, she received a call from George Mandell of George Washington University, who said, "[T]he kind of work you're doing, you've long since passed what a doctorate would have meant.
But we've got to make an honest woman of you. We'll give you a doctorate, so we can call you 'doctor' legitimately. Although Elion was sad to leave the area in which she had lived her entire life, she never considered not moving with the company. She returned regularly to New York to attend her beloved Metropolitan Opera, where she retained her season subscription, but she quickly grew to love North Carolina.
In , after almost four decades at Burroughs Wellcome, Elion retired from active research. She remained "about as unretired as anyone can be," however, serving as Emerita Scientist and consultant to the company, sitting on committees and editorial boards for organizations from the World Health Organization to the National Cancer Advisory Board, lecturing across the United States and abroad, and serving as research professor at Duke University.
Not wanting to stop learning, she continued to attend professional meetings. Elion also traveled widely; an adventurous globetrotter throughout her life, she had already seen most of the world, and she extended almost every professional trip she took with personal travel. A few years before she died, a relative joked that she had been everywhere except Antarctica.
The following year, Elion signed up for a cruise to Antarctica. At am on October 17, , Elion was getting dressed when a reporter called to congratulate her on winning the Nobel Prize. Startled, she retorted, "Quit your kidding. I don't think it's funny. Whoever put you up to it, I think it's a sick joke. Black of the University of London had indeed been awarded the Prize in Physiology or Medicine, "for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment.
With the main body of their work having been done decades earlier, the prize came as a complete surprise. Elion knew that Hitchings had been nominated in the past, but she had no idea she herself had ever been nominated.
In fact, when Hitchings and Elion were nominated as a pair, a Nobel Committee member asked why Elion was included, wondering if she had really contributed. Only when a professional friend of Elion's pointed out that Elion had been first author on many of the early papers, and that her antiviral discoveries had occurred after Hitchings retired, was the committee finally convinced. Elion's receipt of the Nobel Prize was particularly significant, given the hurdles she had had to overcome.
Few Nobels have gone to scientists working in the drug industry or those without Ph. Following the Nobel Prize, additional honors and recognitions poured in.
Elion was elected to the National Academy of Science in and received the National Medal of Science, the United States' highest scientific honor, in The Nobel Prize made Elion even more in demand as a speaker and a spokeswoman, and her busy schedule quickly became even busier. Never very comfortable with scientific luminaries, Elion preferred to spend time with students.
Speaking often to young people from elementary through medical school , she communicated the fun and excitement of science. I don't think people emphasize that enough—they think about the scientist as someone stuck away in the laboratory and oblivious to the rest of the world. That's the farthest thing from the truth.
I feel as though I've made a contribution with my life. Full speed ahead! Elion acquired a widespread reputation as an inspiring, approachable, down-to-earth mentor to students, assistants, and colleagues.
She encouraged her staff to explore their own ideas and made it a point never to take credit for her assistants' work; unlike most scientists, she did not put her name on papers simply because the research had been done in her lab.
Always a team player, she cared far more about the outcome of the lab's collective work than about her own reputation. Elion never felt she needed female role models and preferred to be known simply as a "scientist" rather than as a "female scientist.
Gertrude Elion discusses the importance of letters sent to her from patients helped by her medications.
Courtesy of Bella International Productions, Inc. Elion was a true humanitarian as well as an outstanding scientist. Although she respected those who did science for science's own sake, she always kept in mind the patients whose diseases she aimed to cure and focused on the practical applications of her research.
The personal tragedies she had experienced and the contact she had with patients kept the goal of curing people squarely in front of her. Far more than she did the Nobel Prize, Elion treasured the knowledge that her work had directly benefited the lives of countless individuals.
The prize has done a lot for me, but if it hadn't happened, it wouldn't have made that much difference When you meet someone who has lived for twenty-five years with a kidney graft, there's your reward.
Elion had a great love of life and a warm personality that infected everyone around her. Those who knew her unanimously emphasize—even more than her scientific achievements—how much she cared about people, from her family and friends, to those who took her drugs, to the nameless masses who might someday benefit from her research. When it was discovered that one of her drugs was an effective treatment for Leshmaniasis disease, a serious problem in South America, she pushed hard for Burroughs Wellcome to follow up on the matter, regardless of the money involved.
As a former colleague remarked, "She has a real social conscience In fifty years, Trudy Elion will have done more cumulatively for the human condition than Mother Theresa. Gertrude Elion was an enormously productive and successful chemist. In addition to treatments for leukemia, the herpes virus, gout, and immunity disorders, she also helped to develop medications for arthritis, malaria, and bacterial infections, among other diseases.
At a time when biochemical knowledge was far more limited than it is today and when many of our current sophisticated scientific instruments had yet to be invented, she and Hitchings were able to create remedies for some terrible medical problems. Elion and Hitchings' revolutionary approach to drug development, based on an understanding of the chemical composition of disease and healthy cells and the differences between them, has become standard in pharmaceutical research.
In years to come, scientists will be able to use their methods in search of cures for the world's remaining scourges, including the cancer Elion had always hoped to vanquish. When Elion died on February 21, , the head of Glaxo Wellcome observed astutely, "Gertrude Elion's love of science was surpassed only by her compassion for people.
In the drugs she developed, the scientists she influenced, and the young people she inspired, she left a legacy that will benefit humanity for years to come. Applies to 15 graduate schools but, because of gender discrimination, is turned down by all for graduate assistantships. Synthesizes 6-Mercaptopurine Purinethol , which cures childhood leukemia when used with later-developed medicines.
Opens field of organ transplantation when the immunosuppressant Imuran, which she developed, is used to transplant a foreign kidney into Lollipop, a German shepherd. Becomes first woman to lead a major research group at Burroughs Wellcome when named Head of Experimental Therapy. Shares Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with George Hitchings, for development of rational method for drug design and discoveries in the principles of chemotherapy. Altman, Lawrence K.
Ambrose, Susan A. Dunkle, Barbara B. Lazarus, Indira Nair, and Deborah A. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, Bailey, Martha J. Cawthon, Frances. Colburn, Don. Elion, Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Hitchings, E. Metz, and R. Metabolic studies of allopurinol, an inhibitor of xanthine oxidase Biochem. Actions of purine analogs: Enzyme specificity studies as a basis for interpretation and design. With P. Furman, J. Fyfe, P. Beauchamp, and H. Selectivity of action of an antiherpetic agent, 9- 2-hydroxyethoxymethyl guanine. With K. Biron, J.
Fyfe, and J. Selection and preliminary characterization of cyclovir-resistant mutants of varicella zoster virus. With L. Kucera and P. Inhibition of acyclovir of herpes simplex virus type 2 morphologically transformed cell growth in tissue culture and tumor-bearing animals J. Selectivity—Key to chemotherapy. Presidential address. Acyclovir discovery, mechanism of action and selectivity. With others.
Therapeutic efficacy of vinorelbine against pediatric and adult central nervous system tumors. Biographic Memoirs: Volume 78 contains the biographies of deceased members of the National Academy of Sciences and bibliographies of their published works.
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Get This Book. Visit NAP. Looking for other ways to read this? No thanks. Suggested Citation: "Gertrude B. Biographical Memoirs: Volume Page 17 Share Cite. Page 18 Share Cite. Page 19 Share Cite. Let Trudy explain how she started out making compounds.
Page 20 Share Cite. Page 21 Share Cite. Page 22 Share Cite. Page 23 Share Cite. Page 24 Share Cite. Page 25 Share Cite. The following is from her hand-written notes for a lecture to students. She is survived by four nephews and two nieces, to whom. Page 26 Share Cite.
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