Today, 23 January, marks the birthday of Gertrude B Elion, a chemist who jointly won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her work on drug treatments and the discovery of several drugs used to treat a variety of diseases. This graphic takes a look at some of the key medicines she discovered.
Elion was named on 45 different drug patents. Despite her prolific work in the field of drug discovery, she never gained a formal PhD, but by the end of her life had received 25 honorary doctorates. Her life is a fascinating story of triumph over gender biases to pursue a scientific career; you can read more in her own words here, and a summary of the achievements which led to her being jointly awarded a Nobel Prize here.
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