Gertrude Elion

Gertrude Elion, the first woman inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame (1991), carried out drug research that has saved the lives of thousands of people despite facing many obstacles in the workplace and in academia due to her gender. Elion received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1988 along with George Hitchings and Sir James W. Black for her work in drug research. Their research had demonstrated the differences in nucleic acid metabolism between normal cells and disease-causing cancer cells, protozoa, bacteria, and viruses. The holder of 45 medical patents, Elion decided to pursue drug research after watching her beloved grandfather die of stomach cancer. Not accepted at any of the graduate schools to which she applied, Elion eventually was hired by Burroughs Wellcome, where she worked with Hitchings and spent her career. The drugs she developed treat childhood leukemia, gout, and kidney blockage. Her development of immunosuppressant drugs enables organ transplants. And the approach to drug development that she devised enabled the production of the AIDS drug AZT. The chapter also provides a discussion on the history of organ transplants.