Gertrude Belle Elion's innovative approach to drug discovery furthered the understanding of cellular metabolism and led to the development of medications for leukemia, gout, herpes, malaria, and immunity disorders. Her name appears on 45 patents, and azidothymidine (AZT), the first drug approved for the treatment of AIDS, came out of her lab shortly after her 1983 retirement. Known for her intellectual brilliance and attention to detail, she was one of the few women who held a top post at a major pharmaceutical company. Elion worked at Wellcome Research Laboratories for nearly five decades. Her work, with colleague George H. Hitchings, was recognized with the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine in 1988. The two developed a wide variety of drugs, including acyclovir (Zovirax) for herpes; azathioprine (Imuran) to help prevent rejection; allopurinol (Zyloprim) for gout; pyrimethamine (Daraprim) for malaria; and trimethoprim (part of Septra) for bacterial infections. Her Nobel award was...