CHEMIST

Gertrude B. Elion

1918 - 1999

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Gertrude "Trudy" Belle Elion (January 23, 1918 – February 21, 1999) was an American biochemist and pharmacologist, who shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with George H. Hitchings and Sir James Black for their use of innovative methods of rational drug design for the development of new drugs. This new method focused on understanding the target of the drug rather than simply using trial-and-error. Her work led to the creation of the anti-retroviral drug AZT, which was the first drug widely used against AIDS. Her well known works also include the development of the first immunosuppressive drug, azathioprine, used to fight rejection in organ transplants, and the first successful antiviral drug, acyclovir (ACV), used in the treatment of herpes infection. Read more on Wikipedia

Her biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Gertrude B. Elion is the 70th most popular chemist (down from 37th in 2019), the 374th most popular biography from United States (down from 345th in 2019) and the 11th most popular American Chemist.

Gertrude B. Elion is most famous for her work in the field of pharmacology. She developed the first leukemia drug, AZT, which is used to treat HIV/AIDS. She also developed a drug called clofarabine, which is used to treat cancer in children.

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Among CHEMISTS

Among chemists, Gertrude B. Elion ranks 70 out of 602. Before her are Ilya Prigogine, Leopold Ružička, Wendell Meredith Stanley, Henry Hallett Dale, Gerty Cori, and Vladimir Prelog. After her are Dorothy Hodgkin, William Giauque, Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Karl Ziegler, Hermann Staudinger, and Tu Youyou.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1918, Gertrude B. Elion ranks 12. Before her are Anwar Sadat, Richard Feynman, Kurt Waldheim, Louis Althusser, Leonard Bernstein, and Rita Hayworth. After her are Robert Wadlow, Helmut Schmidt, Frederick Sanger, Alberto Ascari, Ernst Otto Fischer, and Kai Siegbahn. Among people deceased in 1999, Gertrude B. Elion ranks 10. Before her are Hassan II of Morocco, Joseph Heller, Fred Trump, Pete Conrad, Scatman John, and John F. Kennedy Jr.. After her are Mario Puzo, Joaquín Rodrigo, Amália Rodrigues, Yehudi Menuhin, Raisa Gorbacheva, and Arthur Leonard Schawlow.

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Gertrude B. Elion ranks 374 out of 20,380. Before her are Robert E. Lee (1807), Jimmy Wales (1966), Jesse Owens (1913), Spencer Tracy (1900), Philip K. Dick (1928), and Ava Gardner (1922). After her are The Undertaker (1965), Mario Puzo (1920), Sharon Stone (1958), B. F. Skinner (1904), Bill Haley (1925), and Daniel Carleton Gajdusek (1923).

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Among CHEMISTS In United States

Among chemists born in United States, Gertrude B. Elion ranks 11. Before her are John Fenn (1917), F. Sherwood Rowland (1927), Linus Pauling (1901), Earl Wilbur Sutherland Jr. (1915), John Howard Northrop (1891), and Wendell Meredith Stanley (1904). After her are Robert S. Mulliken (1896), James B. Sumner (1887), Thomas Midgley Jr. (1889), Edward Adelbert Doisy (1893), Theodore William Richards (1868), and William Howard Stein (1911).

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