A Tribute to Gertrude Belle Elion on the 100th Anniversary of her Birth

Abstract

A Tribute to Gertrude Belle Elion on the 100th Anniversary of her Birth About 25 years ago, when I directed and taught in a course called Graduate Pharmacology, I would regularly ask students to tell me the names of scientists who deserve a place in the pantheon of great drug discoverers. At least four names were typically offered (the names varied a bit from year to year), and the most frequently mentioned names were Alexander Fleming for penicillin, Paul Ehrlich for Salvarsan (arsphenamine) and its use for syphilis, Friedrich Serturner for morphine, Felix Hoffmann for acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin), and Frederick Banting and Charles Best for insulin. I liked to point out that Nicolae Paulescu isolated insulin (he named it pancreine) before Banting and Best and that Arthur Eichengrun was the actual discoverer of aspirin but that he was denied credit because he was Jewish. I would next point out that there were no women's names suggested; I should note that at least 50% of our graduate students were women. Someone would usually ask, "What about Madam Marie Curie?" Someone else would add that her work on radiation had nothing to do with drug discovery. I would point out that it was her separation of pure radium chloride from pitchblende (uraninite) that made its therapeutic uses possible. Whenever Curie's name came up, it would be an opportune segue to talk about laboratory safety and good laboratory practice by reminding them that Curie died of aplastic anemia secondary to radiation exposure. 1 I would add that Karen Wetterhahn, whose work on heavy metals our students had studied, died of exposure to dimethylmercury in her own laboratory; this liquid organic mercury form accidentally penetrated her latex gloves. Before 1991, I was unaware of any famous female pharmacologists. We have an annual lectureship at Tufts that was endowed by Sterling Drugs to honor Dr. Louis Lasagna, who was then the dean of the Sackler School for Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts and a professor in our newly minted Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (DPET). In 1991, as DPET's first chair, I asked Dr. Lasagna to suggest a name for the Sterling Lectureship. Without hesitation, he suggested Gertrude Elion. When I did not recognize her name, he laughed and told me about her. I soon had the opportunity to meet with her at length and to talk with her at a dinner in her honor. What follows is short version of what I learned from her and from subsequent reading. 2-6 Gertrude Belle Elion was born in New York City 100 years ago (January 23, 1918). During her teenage years, her mother's father died of cancer. Having been close to him, she decided to devote her life to finding cures for cancer. She entered Hunter College in New York City and majored in chemistry, graduating summa cum laude at the age of 19. She then worked part time while working toward a master of science degree at New York University, which she received in 1941. Next, she worked as a chemist at several short-lived jobs at the Quaker Maid Company and John...

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“…13,14 As suggested in my March Note, programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)/programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitors show some benefit in ovarian tumors that show high microsatellite instability or a deficiency in DNA mismatch repair. 7 Further research is needed to elucidate the exact role of checkpoint inhibitors in OC treatment. The current standard protocol usually involves surgical removal and some combination of a platinum-based chemotherapy regimen (eg, cisplatin, carboplatin) and paclitaxel.…”