List of Famous Biologists and their Discoveries

List of Famous Biologists and their Discoveries!

1. William Harvey (1578-1657):

William Harvey was born in England in 1578. After earning a degree from Cambridge University at the age of twenty, he went to Italy to study medicine at the University of Padua. Padua was the center for western European medical instruction at that time. Harvey graduated with honours in 1602 and returned to England where he earned yet another medical degree from Cambridge University. He then settled down to begin practicing medicine.

Harvey was fascinated by the way blood flowed through the human body. Most people of the day believed that food was converted into blood by the liver, and was consumed as fuel by the body. Harvey knew this was untrue through his first hand observations of human and animal dissections.

In 1628 Harvey published An Anatomical Study of the Motion of the Heart and of the Blood in Animals, which explained how blood was pumped from the heart throughout the body, then returned to the heart and recirculated. The views this book expressed were very controversial and lost Harvey many patients, but it became the basis for all modern research on the heart and blood vessels.

He was intrigued by everything about the body, and at some point turned his attention to reproduction also. He speculated that humans and other mammals must reproduce through the joining of an egg and sperm.

No other theory made sense. It was 200 years before a mammalian egg was finally observed, but Harvey’s theory was so compelling and so well thought out that the world assumed he was right long before the discovery was finally made. A second ground breaking book published by Harvey in 1651, Essays on the Generation of Animals, is considered the basis for modern embryology.

Despite the uproar over each of Harvey’s unconventional anatomical theories, he was recognized as a medical leader in his day. He was doctor to King Charles I of England and was appointed doctor of physic at Oxford. At the time of his death in 1657, Harvey’s medical and scientific geniuses were celebrated throughout the European medical community.

The major difference between Harvey and his predecessors was methodology. Harvey was determined to start out, so to speak, with a blank fact book and distinguished it from his theory book. Nothing would go down in his fact book unless tested and would readily remove it if it did not bear out on a re-test.

Harvey went beyond mere superficial observation; he took deliberate steps so as not to be hampered by superstition or antiquated theories. Harvey was the first to adopt the scientific method for the solution of biological problems. Every true scientist, since, has followed Harvey’s approach.

2. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829):

Jean Baptiste Lamarck often called Lamarck, was a French naturalist. He was a soldier, biologist, academic and an early proponent of the idea that evolution occurred and proceeded in accordance with natural laws. After being injured in Army (1766) he returned to medical studies.

In 1801, he published Systeme des Animaux Sans Vertebres, a major work on classification of invertebrates, a term he coined. He categorized echinoderms, arachnids, crustaceans and annelids, which he separated from the old taxon for worms known as vermes. In 1802 publication he first used the term ‘biology’ in its modern sense.

In modern era, Lamarck is widely remembered for a theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics called soft inheritance, Lamarckism (use/disuse theory) which he described in his Philosophic Zoologique (1809).

Lamarck published Hydrogeologic (1802) advocated steady-state geology based on a strict uniformitananism. He argued that global currents tended to flow from east to west, and continents eroded on their eastern borders with the material carried across to be deposited on the western borders. Thus, the earth’s continents marched steadily westward around the globe.

Lamarck stressed two main themes in his biological work. First being, that environment gives rise to changes in animals. He cited examples of blindness in moles, the presence of teeth in mammals and their obsence in birds as evidence of this principle. The second principle was that life was structured in an orderly manner and that many different parts of all bodies make it possible for the organic movements of animals.

He was the first to develop a truly coherent evolutionary theory and outlined in his Floreal Lecture of 1800 first, and later published, Recherches Sul’ organisation des Corps Vivants, 1802; Philosophic Zoologique, 1809; Histoire Naturelle des Animaux Sans Vertebres (1815-1822).

He aurgued that organisms move from simple to complex in a steady, predictable way based on fundamental physical principles. In this view, simple organisms never disappeared because they were constantly being created by spontaneous generation in what has been described as ‘steady-state biology’.

Lamarck saw spontaneous generation as being on going with simple organisms thus created being transmuted over time becoming more complex. He believed in teleological (goal-oriented) process where organisms become more perfect as they evolved, he emphasized that these forces originated from underlying physical principles.

The second component of the theory of evolution was the ‘adaptation of organisms to this environment.’ First law, In every animal which has not passed the limit of its development, more frequently and continuous use of any organ gradually strengthens, develops and enlarges that organ and gives it power proportional to the length of time it has been used so. While the permanent disuse of any organ imperceptibly weakens and deteriorates it, and progressively diminishes its functional capacity and finally disappears.

Second law; All the acquisitions or losses wrought by their nature on individuals, through the influence of the environment in which these race has long been placed and hence through the influence of the predominant use or permanent disuse of any organ. All these are preserved by reproduction to the new individuals which arise, provided that the acquired modifications are common to both sexes or at least to the individual which produce the young.

The international plant names index gives 116 records of plant species named after Lamarck, 103 species of marine species carry the Epithet ‘Lamarcki’. Lamarck gradually turned blind and died in Paris on Dec 18th 1829.

3. Charles Darwin (1809-1882):

Darwin is the first of the evolutionary biologists, the originator of the concept of natural selection. His principal works, The Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871) marked a new epoch. His works were violently attacked and energetically defended, then; and, it seems, yet today.

Charles Robert Darwin was born at Shrewsbury in 1809. His father was a doctor and his mother was the daughter of Josiah Wedgwood. Darwin first studied medicine at Edinburgh. It soon became clear to the family, and particularly to young Charles that he was not cut out for a medical career; he was transferred to Cambridge. While at Cambridge, Darwin befriended a biology professor and his interest in zoology and geography grew. Eventually, Darwin came under the eye of a geology professor, Adam Sedgwick.

Just after a field trip to Wales with Sedgwick through the efforts of Professor Henslow, he had secured an invitation to go aboard the Beagle, which, apparently, was being outfitted by the admiralty for an extended voyage to the South Seas. The plan for the cruise of the Beagle were extended, in that it was to take place over the course of three years (1831-36) and was to take in the southern islands, the South American coast and Australia.

While aboard the vessel, Darwin served as a geologist, botanist, zoologist, and general man of science. It was rare to have aboard a sailing vessel of the early 19th century a person who could read and write, let alone one, such as Darwin, who could appreciate the necessity of applying scientific principles to the business of gathering data and carrying out research on it.

In 1859, Darwin’s shattering work. The Origin of the Species came out. It is now recognized as a leading work in natural philosophy and in the history of mankind. Simply stated, Darwin’s theory is that things, and, in particular, life, evolves by a process which Darwin called “natural selection.”

After spending time on the islands, Darwin developed a theory which implies that all species derived from common ancestors through a process called natural selection. Natural selection is considered to be the biggest factor resulting in the diversity of species and their genomes. “Natural selection” was claimed by Darwin virtually to be the cause of evolution, and in his use of the phrase in the book “Origin of Life”; he gives it the power of the Creator.

The principles of Darwin’s work and his theory are stated below:

The Theory of Natural Selection:

1. One of the prime motives for all species is to reproduce and survive, passing on the genetic information of the species from generation to generation. When species do this they tend to produce more offspring than the environment can support.

2. The lack of resources to nourish these individuals places pressure on the size of the species population, and the lack of resources means increased competition and as a consequence, some organisms will not survive.

3. The organisms which die as a consequence of this competition were not totally at random. Darwin found that those organisms more suited to their environment were more likely to survive.

4. This resulted in the well-known phrase survival of the fittest, where the organisms most suited to their environment had more chance of survival if the species falls upon hard times.

5. Those organisms which are better suited to their environment exhibit desirable characteristics, which is a consequence of their genome being more suitable to begin with.

This ‘weeding out’ of less suited organisms and the reward of survival to those better suited led Darwin to deduce that organisms had evolved over time, where the most desirable characteristics of a species are favoured and those organisms who exhibit them survive to pass their genes on.

As a consequence of this, a changing environment would mean different characteristics would be favourable in a changing environment. Darwin believed that organisms had ‘evolved’ to suit their environments, and occupy an ecological niche where they would be best suited to their environment and therefore have the best chance of survival.

As the above indicates, those alleles of a species that are favoured in the environment will become more frequent in the genomes of the species, due to the organisms higher likeliness of surviving as part of the species at large.

Examples of Natural Selection:

Darwin’s Finches:

Darwin’s finches are an excellent example of the way in which species’ gene pools have adapted for long term survival via their offspring. The Darwin’s Finches diagram below illustrates the way the finch has adapted to take advantage of feeding in different ecological niches.

For example, the finches which eat grubs have a thin extended beak to poke into holes in the ground and extract the grubs. Finches which eat buds and fruit would be less successful at doing this, while their claw like beaks can grind down their food and thus give them a selective advantage in circumstances where buds are the only real food source for finches.

Industrial Melanism:

Polymorphism pertains to the existence of two distinctly different groups of a species that still belong to the same species. Alleles for these organisms over time are governed by the theory of natural selection, and over this time the genetic differences between groups in different environments soon become apparent, as in the case of industrial melanism.

Industrial melanism occurs in a species called the peppered moth, where the occurrence has become of more frequent occurrence since the beginning of the industrial age. The following argument elaborates the basis of principles involved in natural selection as far as industrial melanism is concerned.

(i) Pollution, which is more common in today’s world since the industrial age causes a change in environment, when soot would collect on the sides of buildings from chimneys and industries and make them a darker colour.

(ii) The resultant effect was that the peppered moth, which had a light appearance, was more visible against the darker backgrounds of sooty buildings.

(iii) This meant that predators of the peppered moth could find them more easily as they are more visible against a dark background.

(iv) Due to mutations, a new strain of peppered moth came into existence, where their phenotype was darker than that of the white peppered moth.

(v) This meant that these new, darker peppered moths were once again harder to track down by their prey in environments where industry has taken its toll.

(vi) In this instance, natural selection would favour the darker moths in polluted environments and the whiter moths in the lesser polluted environments due to their ability to merge with their environmental colours and lessen the chances of their being prone to a predator.

Sickle Cell Trait:

Consider this argument of natural selection in the case of sickle cell trait, a genetic defect common in Africa.

(i) Sickle cell trait is a situation that occurs in the presence of a recessive allele coding for haemoglobin, a substance in the blood responsible for the transport of gases like oxygen. The presence of the allele is either partially expressed recessively (sickle cell), or fully expressed by a complete recessive expression which results in full blown anaemia. If this particular allele is dominant, no sickle cell trait is expressed in the phenotype.

(ii) The above occurrences in the case of a recessive allele result in structural defects of red blood cells, severely reducing the organisms’ capacity to uptake oxygen.

(iii) It was pointed out that in Africa; there is a high frequency of this mutation, where cases of malaria were high.

(iv) A substantiated link was made noting those who suffer sickle cell trait or anaemia was immune to the effects of malaria.

(v) This is yet again natural selection at work. Although sickle cell trait or anaemia is not advantageous characteristics on their own, they prove to be advantageous in areas where malaria proves to be a greater threat to preserving the genome (i.e. surviving).

(vi) The incomplete dominance of this genetic expression proves favourable either way.

Darwin’s “evolutionary and comprehensive vision” is a monistic one. It shows that our universe is a “unitary and continuous process”, there does not survive “dualistic split,” and that all phenomena are natural.

4. Jagadish Chandra Bose (1858-1937):

Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose is one of the most prominent first Indian scientists who proved by experimentation that both animals and plants share much in common. He demonstrated that plants are also sensitive to heat, cold, light, noise and various other external stimuli.

Bose contrived a very sophisticated instrument called crescograph which could record and observe the minute responses because of external stimulants. It was capable of magnifying the motion of plant tissue to about 10,000 times of their actual size, which found many similarities between plants and other living organisms.

Contributions and Early Life:

The central hall of Royal Society in London was Jam-packed with famous scientists on May 10, 1901. Everyone seemed to be curious to know how Bose’s experiment will demonstrate that plants have feelings like other living beings and humans. Bose chose a plant whose mots were cautiously dipped up to its stem in a vessel holding the bromide solution. The salts of hydrobromic acid are considered a poison.

He plugged in the instrument with the plant and viewed the lighted spot on a screen showing the movement of the plant, as its pulse beat, and the spot began to and fro movement similar to pendulum within minutes, the spot vibrated in a violent manner and finally come to an abrupt stop. The whole thing was almost like a poisoned rat fighting against death. The plant died due to the exposure to the poisonous bromide solution.

The event was greeted with much appreciation; however some physiologists were not content, and considered Bose as an intruder. They harshly knocked the experiment but Bose did not give up and was quite confident about his findings.

Using the crescograph, he further researched the response of the plant to fertilizers, light rays and wireless waves. The instrument received widespread acclaim, particularly from the path congress of science in 1900. Many physiologists also supported his findings later on, using more advanced instruments.

Jagadish Chandra Bose was born on 30th November, 1858 at Mymen Singh, now called Bangladesh. He was raised in a home committed to pure Indian traditions and culture. He got his elementary educations from a Vernaculer school, because his father Bhagawan Chandra Bose thought that Bose should learn his own mother tongue, Bengali before studying a foreign language like English. Bose attended combridge after studying physics at Calcutta University. He returned to India in 1884 after completing BSc degree from Cambridge University.

Later Life and Death:

Bose authored two illustrious books: ‘Response in the living and non­living (1902) and ‘The Nervous Mechanism of Plants (1926). He also extensively researched the behaviour of radio waves. Mostly known as a plant physiologist, he was actually a physicist. Bose devised another instrument called ‘Coherer’ for detecting the radiowaves.

Prior to his death (1937) Bose set up the Bose Institute at Calcutta. He was elected the fellow of the Royal Society in 1920 for his amazing contribution and achievements.

5. Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan (7^th Aug 1925):

M.S. Swaminathan is an Indian geneticist and international administrator, renowned for his leading role in India’s Green Revolution, where high-yield verities of wheat and rice seedlings were planted in the fields of poor farmers. He is known as ‘Indian Father of Green Revolution’ for his sincere leadership and success in developing high-yielding verities of wheat in India.

Swaminathan is an advocate of moving India to sustainable development, especially using environmentally sustainable agriculture, sustainable food security and the preservation of biodiversity which he calls an ‘Evergreen revolution’.

Swaminathan was the second son of Surgeon Dr. M.K. Sambasivan and Parvati Thangammal Sambasivan. His father was a follower of Mahatma Gandhi took lead in ‘Swadeshi movement’ in Kumbakonam by burning his foreign clothes and emphasized the use of hand-loomed rather than mill-spun cloth.

Surgeon Sambasivan opened temples to Dalits and eradicated filariasis in Kumbakonam. The sense of science to one’s fellowman was thus engrained in the mind of Swaminathan at an early age. He learnt from his father, that “the word impossible exists mainly in our minds and that given the requisite will and effort, great tests can be accomplished.”

Swaminathan completed his matriculation from Catholic Little Flower High School in Kumbakonam, undergraduate degree in zoology at Maharajas College in Trivendrum, Kerala. He decided to pursue a career in agricultural sciences, enrolled in Madras Agricultural College (Tamil Nadu Agricultural University) and graduated in agricultural science.

In 1947 he moved to Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) New Delhi as a post graduate student in genetics and plant breading and obtained degree in cytogenetic in 1949. He accepted the UNESCO fellowship and continued his research on potato genetics at the Wageningen Agricultural University, Institute of Genetics, and Netherlands.

In 1950, he moved to University of Cambridge School of Agriculture and earned a PhD degree in 1952 for his thesis ‘Species Differentiation and the nature of polyploidy in certain species of the genus Solanum- Selection Tuberarium’. He accepted a post-doctoral research associateship at the University of Wisconsin, Dept. of Genetics.

Swaminathan was presented first world food prize in 1987, described as the father of ‘Economic Ecology’ by United Nations Environment Programme. The Times magazine’s 1999 listed him as one of the 20 most influential Asian people of the 20th century. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of London, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Russian, and Chinese & Indian Academy of Sciences.

He had 254 research papers for his credit in the fields of crop improvement, cytogenetics, genetics and phylogenetics. He has written a few books on general theme of his life’s work, on biodiversity and sustainable agriculture for alleviation of hunger. Currently he holds UNESCO- Cousteauchari in Ecotechnology at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai and chairman of the National Commission on Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Security of India.

6. Birbal Sahni (1891-1949):

Birbal Sahni is 3rd son of Ishwari Devi and Lala Ruchi Ram Sahni, was born in Bhera, Shahpur Dist, west Punjab. He was an Indian Paleobotanist who studied the fossils of the Indian subcontinent; also a geologist took interest in archaeology. He is the founder of Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleobotany in Lucknow, India. Birbal served as the President of the National Academy of Sciences and as honorary President of the International Botanical Congress, Stockholm.

Sahni got his early education in India at Government College University, Lahore and Punjab University (1911). He learnt botany under S.R. Kashyap, graduated from Emmonuel College, Cambridge in 1914, under the supervision of Prof. A.C. Seward. He was awarded DSc degree from University of London in 1919.

In 1917 Sahni joined Prof. Seward to work on ‘Revision of Indian Gondwana plant’. In 1920 he married Savitrisuri who was a constant companion in his Research work. He served as Professor of Botany at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi and Punjab University and was appointed as first Professor and Head of Botany Department, Lucknow University in 1921. University of Cambridge recognized the research work by awarding a degree of Sc.D.in 1929. He is the founder of Paleobotonical Society in 1946 in Department of Botany, Lucknow. He died on 10th April 1949.

He was elected as fellow of the Royal Society of Londan. In 1936 the highest British scientific honour, award (1st Indian Botanist), vice President for 5th & 6th International Botanical Congress of 1930 and 1935 and honorary President of the International Botanical Congress, Stockholm in 1950, but he died before he could serve.

7. Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958):

There is probably no other woman scientist with as much controversy surrounding her life and work as Rosalind Franklin. As a scientist Miss. Franklin was distinguished by extreme clarity and perfection in everything she undertook.

Early life:

Rosalind Franklin was born in London, England on 25th July 1920. Franklin did extremely well at science and then studied physics and chemistry. When she was 15, she decided to become a scientist.

Rosalind attended St. Paul’s Girl’s School, London where she displayed great talent in physics and chemistry. From there she went to Newnhan College, Cambridge in 1938. After graduation in 1941, she was awarded a research scholarship to work on gas chromotography. In 1942 she works at the Britist Lodultization Research Association, where she worked on the microstructure of coke. As a result of her research, she gained her Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree from Combridge in 1945.

Contributions & Achievements:

Rosalind was asked to join a research group by John Randall. She was asked to set up a laboratory to study DNA fibers using X-ray crystallograph, where atoms can be precisely mapped by looking at the image of the crystal under an X-ray beam. She had the entire responsibility for determining the structure of DNA. Franklin was able to apply to her knowledge of physical chemistry and as a result, she made thinner fibres in order to produce more exact and easier to interpract X-ray patterns.

She discovered A and B films of DNA, but concentrated on A as it showed more X-ray spots. This form does not show the helical structure as well as form B, which she originally thought of as a ladder with bonds between the bases of the rungs. She recorded in her laboratory note book on 24th February 1953 that she had revised her thinking to that of a three dimensional helix.

Twenty five years after the fact, the first clear recitation of Franklin’s contribution appeared. The double helix inspired several people to investigate DNA history and Franklin’s contribution but the path to the double helix supplied information about original source materials for those who followed. After finishing the portion of the DNA work, Franklin led pioneering work on the tobacco mosaic and polioviruses.

Rosalind Franklin’s critical contribution to the Crick and Watson model was- Franklin’s lecture at the seminar in 1951, where she presented the two forms of the molecules, type A and type B and her position where by phosphate units are located in the external part of the molecule, and she specified the amount of water to be found in the molecules in accordance with other parts of it, date that has considered important in terms of the stability of the molecule. Franklin was the first to discover and formulate these facts. This in fact constituted the basis for all later attempts to build a model of the molecule.

Rosalind Franklin died in 1958. She was not eligible for nomination to the Nobel Prize. Subsequently awarded to Crick, Watson and Wilkins. The award was for their body of work on nuclear acids and not exclusively for the discovery of the structure of DNA.

Franklin also did important research in to the micro-structure and properties of coals and other carbons, and spent the last time years of her career elucidating the structure of plant viruses, notably tobacco mosaic virus. She died at the age of 37 from complications arising from ovarian cancer.

8. Elizebeth Helen Blackburn (1948):

Elizebeth Helen Blackburn born on 26th the November 1948 is an Australian-American. Nobel laureate who is currently the President of the Salk institute of biological science, California, San Francisco. She studied the telomere, a structure at the end of chromosomes that protects the chromosome. Blackburn discovered telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes the telomere. For this work, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2009.

Early life and Education:

Blackburn completed her matriculation exams from University high school Melbourne. She went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in 1970 and Master of Science in 1972. Both from the University of Melbourne and her PhD in 1974 from the University of Cambridge on the bacteria phage phix 174. She then carried out post-doctoral work in molecular and cellular biology between 1975 and 1977 at Yale University.

Work in Molecular Biology:

In 1981, Blackburn joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley in the department of molecular biology. In 1990 she moved across San Francisco Bay to the department of microbiology and Immunology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Served as dept. chairwoman from 1993 to 1999. Blackburn is currently professor of biology and physiology at UCSF and President of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Blackburn co-discovered an enzyme called ‘Telomerase’ which rebuilds telomeres following cell division, but until Blackburn’s discovery they didn’t know how they were repaired afterward. Telomerase, a specialized rib nucleoprotein reverse transcriptase, is important for long-term eukaryotic cell proliferation and genomic stability, because it replenishes the DNA at telomeres.

Thus, depending on cell type telomerase partially or completely counteracts the progressive shortening of telomerase that otherwise occur. Telomerase is highly active in many human and a potential target for anti­cancer approaches. Furthermore, recent collaborative studies have showed the relationship between accelerated telomere shortening and life stress and that low telomerase levels are associated with six prominent risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

For this work she was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in physiology, sharing it with Carol.W.Greider and Jack.W.Szostak. Blackburn was appointed a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics in 2002. She supported human embryonic cell research in opposition to the Bush Administration.

9. Gertrude B. Elion (1918-1999):

“Don’t be afraid of hard work. Nothing worthwhile comes easily. Don’t let others discourage you or tell you that you can’t do it. In my day I was told women didn’t go into chemistry. I saw no reason why we couldn’t.” – Gertude. B. Elion

An American pharmacologist and biochemist, Gertrude. B. Elion is famous for the scientific discovery of drugs to treat leukemia and herbs to prevent the rejection of kidney transplants. This discovery earned her Nobel Prize in physiology in 1988 which she shared with George. H. Hitchings, her long-time boss and collaborator at Burroughs Wellcome, and also Sir JamesW. Black.

Early Life and Education:

Gertrude Elion was born in Newyork city on Jan 23^rd 1918 to immigrant parents Bertha and Robert Elion. She completed her graduation from Hunter College with a B.A.degree in chemistry in 1937. During this time she also planned to become a cancer researcher but for several years worked as a lab assistant, food analyst and high school teacher while studying for her master’s degree at night. She completed her M.S. in chemistry from Newyork University in 1941.

When World War II broke out, there was an urgent need for women at scientific laboratories. So she left to work as an assistant to George. H. Hitchings at Burroughs -Wellcome Pharmaceutical Company (Now Glaxo Smith Klirne). She never obtained a formal PhD, but was later awarded an honorary PhD from Polytechnic University of Newyork in 1989 and honorary SD degree from Harvard University in 1998.

Career and Research:

Elion had moved to the Research Triangle in 1970. She worked for the National Cancer Institution, American Association for Cancer Research and World Health Organization. From 1967 to 1983 she was the Head Department of Experimental Therapy for Burroughs, Wellcome.

Rather than relying on trial and error, Elion and Hitchings used the differences in biochemistry between normal human cells and pathogens (disease causing agents) to design drugs that could kill or inhabit the reproduction of particular pathogens without harming the host cells. Most of Elion’s early work comes from the use and development of Purines.

Elion’s Inventions Include:

(i) 6- mercapto purine (purin ethol), the first-treatment for Leukemia and used in organ transplantation.

(ii) Azathinoprine (Imuran), the first immuno-suppressive agent, used for organ transplants.

(iii) Allopurinol (Zyloprim), for gout.

(iv) Pyrimethamine (Daraprim), for malaria.

(v) Trimethoprin (Septra), for meningitis, septicemia and bacterial infections of the urinary and respiratory tracts.

(vi) Acyclovir (Zovirax), for viral herpes.

(vii) Nelarabirne for cancer treatment.

During 1967 she occupied the position of the head of the Company, Department of Experimental Therapy and officially retired in 1983. Despite her retirement, Elion continued working full time in lab and oversaw the adaption of Azidothymidine (AZT), which become the first drug for treatment of AIDS.

Awards and Honours:

In 1988 Elion received the Nobel Prize in medicine, together with Hitchings, and Sir James Black. She was elected a member of National Academy of Science in 1990. A member of the Institute of Medicine in 1991. Another award includes The National Medal of Science (1991). She became the first women to be inducted into the National Inventor Hall of Fame. She was elected as a foreign member of the Royal Society in 1995.

Elion never married, had no children, and listed her hobbies as photography, travel and listening to music. Gertrude Elion died in North Carolinain 1999, aged 81 years.