The Queen of Versatility

Ms GERTRUDE BELLE ELION

January 23, 1918 - February 22, 1999

1
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1988
"for their discoveries of important principles for
drug treatment"

Sir James W. Black George H. Hitchings

 Timeline
Thioguanine
allopurinol
Worked at
Burroughs- azathioprine
Masters Wellcome

BS Chem
Hunter
acyclovir
College

1918 1933 1937 1941 1944 1963 1970s 1983 1988 1999

Holder of 45 patents &

Retired
23 honorary degrees
 Discoveries of important
principles for drug treatment
 Attempted to create new medicines
 Study the chemical composition of diseased cells

 At a time when everyone was staying away from

Contributions
viruses because To The World
any compound capable of
suppressing viral activity would be very toxic

 She went on to work on a purine which can block

viral infections
Inspirations

Impact to the World

Challenges she faced

A Role Model
 Inspirations
 Death of her loved ones
(grandfather & fiancé)
Hergrandfather came over to Europe
when she was three years old
Had a very close relationship with him

“I watched him die, essentially, in the

hospital. And that made a terrific
impression on me. I decided that nobody
should suffer that much. ”
“I might have gotten married, and it just didn't happen, because the
person I was engaged to died of a disease that could have been cured
by penicillin, but there was no penicillin.”
 Inspirations
 Her mother
“She was a housewife. She had no
higher education, but had the most
common sense of anyone I knew, and
she wanted me to have a career ”

Idolized Marie Curie

“I read about Madam Curie of course.
That said to me that a woman can do
it too”
 Inspirations
 Enjoyed popular science books (Paul de
Kruif’s Microbe Hunters)
 Dealt with very exciting discoveries by people in
chemistry, physics, biology
This book gave her the feeling that it
was all right to struggle

It was all right for discoveries to be hard.

It didn't have to come easily, and yet

there were so many things to be done in
science.”
 Inspirations
 Sexual discrimination
 Did well in school
 Went for long periods of interviews
 Then they would say,
"Well, we think you'd be a distracting influence in the
laboratory."
Inspirations

Impact to the World

Challenges she faced

A Role Model
 Thioguanine 6-mercaptopurinol

Drugs developed
by Ms Elion

Azathioprine
Allopurinol Acyclovir
(Imuran)
 6-mercaptopurine
 This is the first anti-cancer
drug used for treatment
for acute lymboblastic
leukemia in children.

 This drug saves 80% of purine

the childhood leukemia
patients.

6-mercaptopurine
 Azathioprine (Imuran)
 Suppresses immune system

 Made organ transplantation

possible

 First successful kidney transplant

from an unrelated donor performed
in 1962

• She has said, "When you meet

someone who has lived for 25
years with a kidney graft, there's
your reward."
 Allopurinol
 Synthesized in 1963
 Relative of 6-MP
 Prevents build up of uric acid
 A build-up of uric acid can
cause severe pain in joints
(gout)
 Acyclovir
 Viral research in 1968
 Developed acyclovir
 First selective antiviral agent
effective against herpes virus
infections
Contributions To The World
 Gertrude B. Elion together with George H.
Hitchings synthesized a wide variety of
drugs.
 Revolutionized the way drugs are
developed.
 Drugs developed by imitating natural
compounds.
Excellent Collaboration

“I had a little more

patience to do the
nitty-gritty kinds of
things in the
laboratory

He had more insight,

more appreciation of
what these things all
meant.”

George H .Hitchings Hitchings and Elion

Inspirations

Impact to the World

Challenges she faced

A Role Model
 Challenges

Gender Bias Education

Challenges Ms. Elion

Faced

Lack of scientific Family

information
 Gender Bias
 Aged 19 - Graduated summa cum laude in Chemistry.
 Aged 23 - Masters in Chemistry at New York University
 Overcame by not giving up and doing what she likes
e.g. as a laboratory assistant in biochemistry.
 Taught chemistry and physics in schools in New York
City.
 Worked as a food analyst e.g. checking the acidity of
pickles
 Paid $50 a week as a lab assistant.

“I think that people need a goal, but I don't think they

have to feel that goal is immovable.”
 Gender Bias
"I knew I was
right." ...

Stood her ground when

challenged by a distinguished
scientist
 Education
 No doctorate degree.
 Felt disadvantaged.
 Tried to overcome it by taking a Ph.D. program (night
course) at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute.
 Long traveling hours.
 Had to quit because part time Ph.D. were not
recognized.
 could not afford to give up her job.

“It just was the wrong time for me to drop my job, and
it had been too difficult to find the right kind of job.”
 Family
 Ms. Elion never married, her fiancé died of a
heart infection.
 She would not have advanced in her career if she
had chosen to marry and have children.
 Women then were not encouraged to work while
their children were young.

“It was my life, it wasn't just my job.”

 Lack Scientific Information
 Only knew the presence of 4 bases.
 Structure of DNA was not fully elucidated
by Watson and Crick.
 Overcame by using her scientific reasoning
and analysis using what she already knew.

“One of the things we had in mind was to inhibit

what kills cancer cells.”
Inspirations

Impact to the World

Challenges she faced

A Role Model
 A Role Model to all
 Challenged gender bias
 Strongly believed in what she did
 Paper qualifications are not everything
 She displays many positive qualities needed to go a
long way
 Precise in her work
 Intellectually brilliant
 Ability to work well with others
 Dedication, Passion
 Determination

“I'd love to be an opera singer. I have a terrible voice.”

 A Role Model to all
 Shehas the right attitude
aiming at getting people well, not for a
Nobel Prize
Greater satisfaction than any prize you
can get

“People ask me whether the Nobel Prize was the

thing you were aiming for all your life, and I say
that would be crazy….If you didn't get it, your
whole life would be wasted.”
 A Role Model to all

Take each failure as a valuable

learning experience.
Never let failure be the end of the line

“OK, that one failed. It was a step which was in the

wrong direction, so let's go back to the crossroads, and
go in a different direction and not let the failure be
the end of the line.”
 Acknowledgements
Photographs taken from
 http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/eli0bio-1
 http://newton.nap.edu/html/biomems/gelion.html
 http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0210181/images/elion.htm
 http://www.die-forschenden-pharma-unternehmen.de/wissenswertes/forschergalerie/elion.htm

References
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/eli0bio-1
http://newton.nap.edu/html/biomems/gelion.html
http://www.wellesley.edu/Chemistry/chem227/news/obit-elion.html
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1988/elion-autobio.html
http://www.chemheritage.org/EducationalServices/pharm/chemo/readings/lifeline.htm#1900