Elion, Gertrude Belle (1918–1999)

US biochemist who was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1988 with her colleague George Herbert Hitchings and James Black for their work on the principles governing the design of new drug treatment, leading to the development of drugs to treat cancer, gout, malaria, and various viral infections.

She was best known for her work to develop new drugs, particularly those which inhibit the synthesis of DNA by diseased cells. Together with her colleague Hitchings she investigated the chemistry and function of two important components of DNA, pyrimidine and purine. From this they developed new drugs to treat leukaemia, malaria, kidney stones, gout, herpes, and AIDS. Elion also helped to develop early forms of immunosuppressive drugs to enable transplant patients to tolerate the presence of tissues from an unrelated donor.

Elion was born in New York City and graduated from Hunter College in 1937 before obtaining her MSc from New York University. In 1944 she joined the laboratories of Burroughs Wellcome in North Carolina and held the position of research professor of pharmacology and medicine at Duke University from 1983.