Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer

How Gertrude Elion Became a Pioneer of Modern Medicine

Clip: Episode 3 | 5m 3s  | Video has closed captioning.

Gertrude Elion and George Hitchings were a drug-making dream team. They built highly efficient, targeted synthetic drugs to perform specific tasks. Elion and her team built a new antiviral drug in the 1970s to treat herpes, ushering in a new age of medicine and paving the way for designer drugs that could treat a huge range of illnesses.