Biochemist Gertrude B. Elion was born #OTD in 1918. Co-winner of the 1988 Nobel Prize in Medicine, she developed a remarkable array of important pharmaceuticals using “rational drug design” that focused on differences in the biochemistry of healthy cells and pathogens. 🧪 👩‍🔬 🦠 - ThreadSky

mcnees.bsky.social • 45 days ago

Biochemist Gertrude B. Elion was born #OTD in 1918.

Co-winner of the 1988 Nobel Prize in Medicine, she developed a remarkable array of important pharmaceuticals using “rational drug design” that focused on differences in the biochemistry of healthy cells and pathogens. 🧪 👩‍🔬 🦠

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enzymer.bsky.social•45 days ago

She was a great scientist. I take allopurinol, which she & a student developed to manage gout

mcnees.bsky.social•45 days ago

It is impossible to overstate the importance of Gertude Elion’s work. Here's a list of five major accomplishments:

1. In 1950 she invented 6-mercaptopurine with George Hitchings. This was the first effective treatment for some forms of childhood leukemia.

(2/n)

mcnees.bsky.social•45 days ago

2. In 1957, Elion and Hitchings developed the immunosuppressant Azathioprine. This made organ transplants possible and helped treat autoimmune diseases.

3. She developed the anti-viral Acyclovir with Howard Schaeffer. It is used to treat chickenpox, shingles, and herpes simplex.

(3/n)

mcnees.bsky.social•45 days ago

4. Researchers trained by Elion, using techniques she developed, produced azidothymidine (AZT), the first drug approved for the treatment of AIDS.

5. In 1952 Elion invented the drug pyrimethamine, used to treat malaria. Its other common use is preventing pneumonia in HIV/AIDS patients.

(4/n)

mcnees.bsky.social•45 days ago

You may have heard of that last drug, pyrimethamine, under its brand name “Daraprim.” It is the drug that was famously price-gouged by Martin Shkreli a few years ago. (5/n)

mcnees.bsky.social•45 days ago

Gertrude Elion retired from Burroughs Wellcome in 1983, and won the Nobel in 1988. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1990, and received the National Medal of Science in 1991. That same year she became the first woman to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. (6/n)

mcnees.bsky.social•45 days ago

Here is a page about Elion at the Jewish Women’s Archive (@jwaonline.bsky.social, a marvelous resource), with a timeline of her career and lots of audio and video from various interviews. (7/n)

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