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Annotated Bibliography
Gotcher, Renee. In memorium: Gertrude Elion, 1918-1999 InfoWorld, 21.18 (May 3,
1999): S10.
After the death of Gertrude Elion this review of her work and accomplishments served to
explore her medical research, participation in professional organizations, and teaching at the
University of North Carolina and Duke University. Elion received her undergraduate and
master's degrees in Chemistry. She went on to teach at the high school level. During World War
II, Elion worked as a biochemist with George Hitchings. In 1988, Elin and Hitchings won the
Nobel Prize for Medicine. As a researcher, she investigated cures and treatments for arthritis,
herpes, and leukemia. Elion did not complete a PhD or MD, however over twenty organizations
awarded her honorary doctorate degrees.
Nobel Prize Centennial: a View from the Fens. Indicators. 2.1 (2003): 85-112. Print.
The Nobel Prize is considered the most exalted and most influential prize awarded to members
of the scientific community. It is a gauge of success. However, the history of the Nobel Prize
award is one filled with prejudice, preferential treatment, and favoritism. Gertrude Elion was a
Jewish female who entered academia to study science at a time when neither Jews nor females
were welcome. She shared the Nobel Prize in 1988 with two men, Dr. George Hitchings and Sir
James Black.

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McGrayne, Sharon B. Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles, and
Momentous Discoveries. Secaucus, N.J: Carol Pub. Group, 1993. Print.
As of the publication date on this book, Nobel Prize awards to women in science accounted for
three percent of the recipients. This shocking inequality of awards is the subject of this book.
The author explores the accomplishments female scientists whose work and research was vital to
Nobel Prize award-winning ventures. The result is a compilation of stories about women who
were passionate about scientific inquiry.

Essay
Gertrude Elion grew up in New York City, her father was a dentist. She graduated high
school and college early. Hunter College awarded her a degree in Chemistry when she was 19
years old. She taught high school and worked part-time on her Masters degree at New York
University. She finished her Masters degree in Chemistry when she was 23 years old but the
university refused to allow her to complete her PhD on a part time basis. Because she could not
get a fellowship or assistantship, Elion had to quit graduate school to continue working. Much
later in her life Polytechnic University of New York and Harvard University would be among the
colleges that awarded Elion honorary doctorates (Gotcher 1999).
When Gertrude Elion was a teenager, her grandfather died a painful death from cancer.
She became obsessed with the disease and ultimately with treatments and cures for cancer. In
her studies, Elion became familiar with the tragedy of childhood leukemia. After working for
many years, Elion developed a pharmaceutical treatment that by 1950 produced a short remission

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in children who were suffering from leukemia. The treatment was far from a success, and its
failure spurred her on to do further research. During the next 18 years, she developed more than
100 variations on the original purine compound. Thioguanine was the final result, a drug that is
still in use today in the treatment of leukemia patients (Mink 2001).
Elion worked on the development of a treatment for herpes called Acyclovir and another
that would assist with the success of organ transplants called Imuran. During World War II,
Burroughs Wellcome Company hired Elion as a chemist. As a chemist, she worked on methods
to develop drugs, not on developing specific drugs per se. Her experiments involved
investigations into the manner of normal and abnormal cell production. This led to discoveries
about how diseases function in the body (Mink 2001).
Elions life was focused almost exclusively on her work. She never married or had
children and there is no evidence that she had a life partner of any kind. Elion retired at the age
of 65 years old, disenchanted with the way drug companies conducted testing in the automated
age. In Elions opinion, pharmaceutical companies had abandoned careful research in favor of
large automated systems that cranked data about drug success and interaction and spewed out
statistics that led the way for further drug development (Mink 2001). Elion worked at Duke
University and then University of North Carolina as well as consulting for the American
Association for Cancer Research and World Health Organization until her death at the age of 81
years old (Gotcher 1999).
Gertrude Elion is a favorite topic of writers of childrens books. Her struggles as a
female who worked hard and graduated with honors only to discover that she could not find a job
are the topic of many books written to inspire young girls. Elion overcame discrimination that
left her working as an unpaid lab assistant to pursue her dream and become a Nobel Prize winner.

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Works Cited

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Gotcher, Renee. In memorium: Gertrude Elion, 1918-1999. InfoWorld, 21.18 (May 3,
1999): S10.
Nobel Prize Centennial: a View from the Fens. Indicators. 2.1 (2003): 85-112. Print.
McGrayne, Sharon B. Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles, and
Momentous Discoveries. Secaucus, N.J: Carol Pub. Group, 1993. Print.
Mink, Michael. Biochemist Gertrude Elion Her Determination and Passion Saved
Lives. Investor's Business Daily. 2001.