Gertrude B. Elion
Women Nobel Laureates
(1918-1999) ~ Nobel Laureate Scientist
1988 Medicine "for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment" with Sir James Black and George Hitchings. Elion shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in Medicine for pioneering work in inventing drugs to help in successful organ transplants, and others to counter acute leukemia, kidney disease and arthritis. They focused their research on the genetic differences between healthy and diseased cells. As scientist emeritus, Elion was named research professor of medicine at Duke University. In 1991, Elion became the first woman inducted into the National Inventor's Hall of Fame.