Elion, Gertrude B.

Elion, Gertrude B. (Belle) (1918–  ) pharmacologist; born in New York City. She taught in the New York City secondary school system and worked as a research chemist for several New York City companies before joining the Burroughs Wellcome Company (1944–83). There she began a 23-year professional collaboration with pharmacologist George Hitchings. Elion considered that she and the more dominating Hitchings could work as a team to discover drugs for immunosuppression, gout, and bacterial, parasitic, and viral diseases; their anti-herpes treatment, acyclovir, was a breakthrough in antiviral research. Elion and Hitchings won one-half the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology for their many contributions to pharmaceutical research.