GERTRUDE BELLE ELION: medicin against diseases

                 
                 GERTRUDE BELLE ELION

Gertrude Belle Elion was born was born on January 23, 1918 in New York,USA.

She was an American biochemist and pharmacologist. 

Daughter of two inmigrants: Robert Elion (lithuanian dentist)  and Bertha Cohen (polish housekeeper). When she was 15, her grandfather died of leukemia, which was crucial for her to devote her life for medicine.

She studied and graduated in Hunter College in New York in 1937. After that, she wanted to enter in the University, but she couldn't because of the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

Finally, in 1939 she started a Chemestry master in the New York University and she finished it in 1941.

In 1988, she won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine.

She died on February 21, 1999 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina of natural causes.


CONTRIBUTION IN SCIENCE:





 She studied the biochemical differences between human cells and pathogenic cells to design pharmaceuticals that could avoid the reproduction of pathogens (for example, cancer).


Together with George Herbert Hitchings (whose assistant was Gertrude), they succeded in obtaining efficient medicines against leukemia, malaria, urinary infections and several autoimmune diseases.

  Two examples are:


- AZT, for the AIDS treatment.

- Imuran, a medication used for transplants.


Citations:

 https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/e/elion.htm 
 https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Belle_Elion
 https://mujeresconciencia.com/2014/09/15/gertrude-belle-elion-premio-nobel-en-medicina/

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54evq4qPvyg


Ander Gabarrús and Pavel Burlacu