Gertrude was born in 1918 in New York. She was an American pharmacologist and biochemist. She was inspired to pursue a career in medical research after her grandfather died of stomach cancer, and she lost her fiancé due to complications with his heart. After these tragic losses, she dedicated her life to finding new treatments for many diseases including different cancers.
Gertrude used a method known as rational drug design to develop treatments for leukaemia, malaria, gout, herpes and AIDs. The method involved preventing substances called purines from entering the metabolic pathway, which blocked DNA production and prevented cell growth. Today, the use of the leukaemia drug she developed (6-mercaptopurine), when combined with other drugs, is responsible for curing 80% of children with leukaemia. Along with her colleagues, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1988 for discovering important principles of drug treatment.
Despite facing gender discrimination, Gertrude was determined to pursue a career as a research scientist. Many labs refused to give her a job just because she was a woman. She didn’t let that stop her though as she volunteered in chemistry labs until she was hired as a research chemist by Johnson & Johnson. After that she then went on to work for Burroughs Wellcome Company where she carried out her rational drug design research with George Hitchings. Gertrude didn’t let the discrimination she faced hold her back and she went on to discover ground-breaking medical treatments!
Classroom starter question:
Why are viruses and cancers much harder to treat than bacterial infections?