When Gertrude Elion was 15 years old, her grandfather died of cancer. An impressionable age, she decided to do all she could to cure the disease, and studied chemistry at college. Finding jobs in the industry was difficult, but with the start of World War II, more jobs for women opened up and there was a need for people to work in laboratories. Finally with her foot in the door, Gertrude forged a partnership with Dr George H Hitchings that would continue for 40 years whilst he allowed her to continually increase her responsibility. Gertrude and Dr Hitchings began to study the chemical composition of diseased cells. By studying the chemical relationships between cells and their pathogens, they were able to design drugs that blocked viral infections, including ones to tackle leukaemia, malaria, herpes, AIDS, a drug for cancer treatment as well as a drug to help the body to accept foreign tissues during transplants. In 1988, Gertrude was honoured with the Nobel Prize in Medicine, with Hitchings and Sir James Black. However, she is noted to have said, What we were aiming at was getting people well, and the satisfaction of that is much greater than any prize you can get. She continued to find new avenues to conquer, new mountains to climb until her death in 1999.
