The American biochemist Gertrude B. Elion (1918-1999) won a Nobel Prize for her scientific discovery of drugs to treat leukemia and herpes and to prevent the rejection of kidney transplants.

Born in New York City in 1918, Gertrude Elion graduated from Hunter College with a B.A. degree in chemistry in 1937. In the midst of the Great Depression it was difficult for a woman to find a job in science. Elion had decided while still in high school to become a cancer researcher but for several years worked as a lab assistant, food analyst, and high school teacher while completing her Masters degree at night. She received an M.S. in chemistry from New York University in 1941.

During World War II, women were needed in scientific laboratories and Elion was hired as a biochemist by the Wellcome Research Laboratories, then in Tuckahoe, New York. There she worked for many...