1
Beck
UCO 1200
20 Oct. 2014
Gertrude Belle Elion
Summary
Gertrude Belle Elion was the first woman to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Not only was she a first, but also, a winner of Prizes such as the Garvan Medal in 1968; the Lemelson-MIT Lifetime
Achievement Award in 1997; the National Medal of Science in
1991; and most widely know for the Novel Prize in Medicine in
1988. Gertrude was born on January 23, 1918 in New York City and died on February 21, 1999 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
During her life, Gertrude Elion created five groundbreaking drugs, won many awards and overall spent her life looking for new cures, all done without a
Ph.D.
Table of Contents

Early Life

Later Life

Work Ethics

Awards

Drug Developments

Quotes
Early Life

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Gertrude Belle Elion was born on January 23, 1918, in New York City. Her parents were
Robert Elion and Bertha Cohen. Robert migrated from Lithuania to New York when he was twelve years old. Bertha Cohen was an immigrant from Russia (now Poland) at age 14. While
Robert was in the New York University Dental School in 1914, Bertha was becoming a seamstress. They married at age 19. Gertrude’s brother, Herbert, was born when she was six years old. Gertrude’s grandpa moved to the United States while Gertrude was just a child and
“had a close and loving relationship with him” (Chung 145).
After only attending years at the local grammar school, Gertrude and her family moved to the Bronx, which were the suburbs of New York City at the time (“Gertrude Elion Interview”).
Gertrude had begun reading at a young age and progressed through school faster than most children; she ended up skipping several grades. She had always had a dream of attending college unlike her mother. For high school, Gertrude attended Walton High School for girl. This school had a great reputation and gave her a great basis of knowledge for college and life (Chung 145).
At 15 years old, Gertrude was already enrolled at Hunter College and soon the women’s division of City College of New York. Hunter College was a free college; after the stock market crash in 1919, her father went bankrupt and therefore she would not have been able to attend college (Chung 146). Gertrude was indecisive about what she wanted to major in (“Gertrude
Elion Interview”) until her grandfather’s death in 1933. Her grandfather died of stomach cancer and that is what made her choose chemistry as her major. Gertrude cared so much for her grandfather and had a drive to discover new medicines as well as to find ways to help treat cancer patients. She referred to her grandfather’s death as “’the turning point’” in her career
(Chung 145).
Later life

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In 1937, Gertrude Belle Elion graduated college with an A.B. degree in chemistry,
“ summa cum laude ” (Chung 146), from Hunter College. Her drive to fight for cancer patience was as strong as ever. Gertrude began applying to graduate schools, immediately after graduating. Unfortunately, all 15 schools that she applied to rejected her because she was a girl.
Times were tough and women in a science or laboratory setting were scarce (Colvin).
Gertrude began applying for job at this time. She was disappointed to find that no one wanted a well educated, hard working, girl . The Great Depression was the worst time for anyone to find a job. During this time, Gertrude stumbled upon, the “man of her dreams” (Chung 145),
Leonard Canter. Leonard was a student at City College, majoring in statistics. They soon decided to marry after Leonard’s one-year trip to study abroad. But, in 1941, Leonard Canter died of acute bacterial endocarditis, a bacterial infection of the heart (Chung 146).
The next seven years of Gertrude’s life continued down a dead ended road. She spent these years in and out of different jobs. After six weeks of secretarial school, Gertrude got a low paying job as a doctor’s receptionist (Chung 149). In addition, she found a job as an instructor, teaching nursing students at New York University, teaching biochemistry. This was her entry point into the scientific world of jobs.
After only three months, Gertrude was hired at a pharmaceutical company. This was the
Denver Chemical Company. Gertrude later explains that she quit a year and a half later because the president of the company told anti-Semitic jokes before work every morning.
Moving on to new jobs, Gertrude stopped substitute teaching and found work at an A&P
Grocery Store laboratory. Here, she was working as a “quality control chemist” (Chung 146), but this was not her desired job. Gertrude wanted to work with cancer research and she was done wasting her time with any other type of work. One and a half years later, she found a research

4 job at Johnson and Johnson Laboratories in New Brunswick, New Jersey. This job was said to have “fortified her interest in chemotherapy” (chung 146). Six months in, the company closed.
Finally, in 1944, Gertrude Belle Elion finds Burroughs Wellcome Laboratory, in
Tuckahoe, New York. Dr. George H. Hitchings hires Gertrude as his assistant. Here, she is given an opportunity to start her career as a chemist. While working at Burroughs Wellcome
Laboratory, Gertrude perused her other dreams of attending graduate school and earning her
Ph.D. After taking a few classes at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, the school’s administration made her decide whether she wanted to focus on her studies or her job; Gertrude chose her job.
This is where she continued her career as a chemist for the next 40 years (Chung 146, 147).
In 1968, Gertrude and the Burroughs Wellcome Laboratories moved from New York to
Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. She later became a professor at the University of
North Carolina and Duke University and yet continued to research thoroughly. In 1983, Gertrude
Belle Elion retired to work as a consultant. Although after retirement, Gertrude did not discontinue her research.
Gertrude Belle Elion died in the UNC hospital on February 21, 1999. She was going for her daily walk, collapsed, and was taken to the hospital; Gertrude died that night in the hospital.
Elion was known for her research and creations of drugs but most people did not know that
Gertrude also enjoyed opera, listening to music, traveling, and even photography. She traveled widely to Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. Gertrude Belle Elion spent her years following the pull of her dreams and was successful at what she thought of as realistic goals.
From being the first women inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame, to finding a job during the
Great Depression, Gertrude Belle Elion will continue to be an inspiration to not only women scientists, but to everyone (Altman).

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Drug Developments
Throughout Gertrude Belle Elion’s career, she created and/or helped create five incredible drugs. These drugs include:

Allopurinol

Thioguanine

Mercaptopurine

Azathioprine

Acyclovir
Each of these drugs are used daily in modern medicine and have made the difference in life and death for some people with health issues. Allopurinol is used in the treatment of gout.
Thioguanine and mercaptopurine was the first treatment for leukemia. Azathioprine was created to prevent the rejection of kidney transplants and also treated rheumatoid arthritis. Acyclovir is the first antiviral drug used for effecting herpes virus infections (Chung 152).
Work Ethics
Gertrude Belle Elion was not one whom would use trial and error methods and would never come by her discoveries by accident. Her discoveries were made through hard work, knowledge, and planning with chemicals. These effective drugs were developed using the knowledge of the difference between metabolism in disease-causing cancer cells and non disease-causing cancer cells (normal cells). Gertrude’s type of research is still considered the
“mainstream of research to biochemists, pharmacologists, and toxicologists” today. (Chung 152)
Honors and Awards
Year Honor/Award Awarded By Source

1968
1970
1983
1984
1985
1988
1990
1991
1997
The Garvan Medal:
*The first woman to be awarded a medal from The
American Chemical Society
The President’s Medal
The Judd Award
The American
Chemical Society
Chung 149
Cain Award
The Distinguished Chemist
Award
The Novel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Hunter College
The Sloan-Kittering
Institute
The American
Association for Cancer
Research
The Distinguished
Chemist Award
The Novel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine
Chung 149
Chung 149
Chung 149
Chung 149
“Gertrude B.
Elion-
Biographical”
Chung 150 The Ernst W. Bertner
Memorail Award
The Medal of honor
The National Medal of
Science
The Induction into the
Inventors Hall of fame:
*The first women to be inducted
The Induction into the
National Women’s Hall of
Fame
The Lemelson/MIT Lifetime
Achievement Award
The M.D. Anderson
Cancer Center
The American Cancer
Society
The National Medal of
Science
The Inventors Hall of
Fame
The National Women’s
Hall of Fame
The Lemelson/MIT
Lifetime Achievement
Award
Chung 150
Chung 150
Greatwomen.org
Chung 150
In addition to these awards and honors, Elion received 25 honorary doctorates from schools including Brown University, the University of Michigan, George Washington
University, Hunter College of the City of New York, Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and
Science, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Chung 151).
Quotes
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 “’That was the turning point [her grandfather dying of stomach cancer]. It was as though the signal was there, ‘this is the disease you’re going to have to work against.’ I never really stopped thinking about anything else. It was that sudden.’” –Gertrude Belle Elion
(Chung 145)
 “She was a human jewel” –Chung
 “’I hadn’t been aware that there were doors closed to me until I started Knocking on them. I went to an all-girls school. There were 75 chemistry majors in that class, but most were going to teach it…. When I got out and they didn’t want women in the laboratory, it was a shock…. It was the Depression and nobody was getting jobs. But I had taken that to mean nobody was getting jobs – [when I heard] ‘You are qualified. But we’ve never had a women in the laboratory before, and we think you’d be a distracting influence,’ I almost fell apart.’” –Gertrude Belle Elion (Chung 145)
 “Gertrude became one of the forefront scientists involved in nucleic acid research.”
–Chung
 “’We have to understand the function of these drugs inside the body in order to truly cure diseases.’” –Chung
 “’The only thing I can claim is training people in methodology… the work is all theirs.”
–Gertrude Belle Elion (Chung 151)
 “’I don’t want to die until I’m used up.’” –Gertrude Belle Elion (Chung 151)

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Works Cited
Altman, Lawrence K. "Gertrude Elion, Drug Developer, Dies at 81." The New York Times . The
New York Times, 22 Feb. 1999. Web. 08 Oct. 2014.
Colvin, Michael. "Gertrude Belle Elion (1918-1999)." Science 284.5419 (1999): 1480. Academic
Search Complete . Web. 7 Nov. 2014.
Chung, King-Thom. "Gertrude Belle Elion (1918-1999): Innovative Drug Developer." Women
Pioneers of Medical Research: Biographies of 25 Outstanding Scientists . Jefferson, NC:
McFarland, 2010. 144-52. Print.
"Gertrude B. Elion - Biographical". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 8 Oct 2014.
"Gertrude Elion Interview." Academy of Achievement . N.p., 26 Feb. 2010. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.
"Gertrude Elion." Famous Scientists . N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2014.
Kent, Richard, and Brian Huber. "Gertrude Belle Elion (1918-99)." Nature 398.6726 (1999):
380. Environment Complete. Web. 8 Oct. 2014.
Marx, Jean L. "The 1988 Nobel prize for physiology or medicine." Science 242.4878 (1988):
516. Biography in Context.
Web. 23 Sept. 2014.
M., M. "Gertrude Elion, Biochemist." Chemical Heritage 25.4 (2007): 40-41. Academic
Search Complete. Web. 8 Oct. 2014.
"Women of the Hall." Gertrude Belle Elion . N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2014.