# Virginia Holocaust Museum unveils plaque honoring Dr. Gertrude Elion

May 28, 2012

 [   ![Gertrude Elion, circa 1988](/sites/default/files/styles/scale_width_300px/public/mediaobjects/gemolec.jpg?itok=83IjTzhK "Gertrude Elion, circa 1988") ](/media/gertrude-elion)

Chemist Gertrude Elion (1918 – 1999) holding an chemical model, circa 1988.

Courtesy of GlaxoSmithKline Inc. Heritage Center.



 [View Details](/media/gertrude-elion) 

 

 

The Virginia Holocaust Museum in Richmond, VA, celebrated Jewish American Heritage Month by unveiling a Jewish-American Hall of Fame plaque honoring Nobel Prize Winner in Medicine Dr. Gertrude Elion.

Elion developed the first chemotherapy for childhood leukemia, the immunosuppressant that made organ transplantation possible, the first effective anti-viral medication, and treatments for lupus, hepatitis, arthritis, gout, and other diseases. Elion joined an impressive list of American Jewish female Nobel Prize winners in science that also includes American-born [Rosalyn Yalow](/thisweek/dec/08/1977/rosalyn-s-yalow) (1977) and [Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori](/thisweek/dec/10/1947/gerty-theresa-radnitz-cori) (1947), as well as [Rita Levi-Montalcini](/thisweek/oct/13/1986/rita-levi-montalcini) (1986), and Ada Yonath (2009), who were born and educated abroad.

***Sources:*** Jewish American Heritage Month [Calendar of Events](https://jewishamericanheritage.org/)



 

 

 

 

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