Gertrude B. Elion

Gertrude B. Elion was an American biochemist and pharmacologist whose research helped create drugs for leukemia, organ transplantation, gout, and viral infections. She shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Mercaptopurine: A purine-antimetabolite drug used to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia and other conditions. Elion and George Hitchings developed this early leukemia treatment by targeting purine metabolism.
Rational drug design: The design of drugs based on knowledge of biological targets and disease mechanisms. Elion and Hitchings helped establish a systematic alternative to trial-and-error drug discovery.
George H. Hitchings: An American pharmacologist who developed antimetabolite drug research with Gertrude B. Elion. Their decades-long collaboration produced a methodical approach to designing medicines.
New York City: The largest city in the United States, located at the mouth of the Hudson River. Elion was born and raised in New York City.
Organ transplantation: The transfer of an organ from a donor to a recipient to restore bodily function. Azathioprine helped make long-term control of transplant rejection possible.
Azathioprine: An immunosuppressive drug that is converted in the body to active thiopurine metabolites. Elion’s group developed it to suppress immune rejection after organ transplantation.
Antimetabolite: A molecule that resembles a natural metabolite and disrupts a biochemical process when cells use or encounter it. Several of Elion’s medicines mimic purines or folate-related compounds to interrupt cell growth.
James W. Black: A Scottish pharmacologist whose drug discoveries and receptor research earned the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Black shared the Nobel Prize with Elion and Hitchings for distinct advances in drug treatment.
Hunter College: A public college in New York City, founded in 1870 as a college for women. Elion earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry there.
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia: A fast-growing cancer of immature lymphocytes in the blood and bone marrow. Mercaptopurine became part of combination treatment that greatly improved childhood survival.

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Daniel BovetRelated: Elion’s later drug-discovery work extended the medicinal chemistry tradition Bovet helped advance.