28 APR 2012 by ideonexus
Gertrude B. Elion's Tragedy
I had fallen in love with a young man..., and we were planning to get married. And then he died of subacute bacterial endocarditis... Two years later with the advent of penicillin, he would have been saved. It reinforced in my mind the importance of scientific discovery...Her love died from an infection penicillin could have cured, but it was invented two years later.
28 APR 2012 by ideonexus
Do What You Love
It is important to go into work you would like to do. Then it doesn't seem like work. You sometimes feel it's almost too good to be true that someone will pay you for enjoying yourself. I've been very fortunate that my work led to useful drugs for a variety of serious illnesses. The thrill of seeing people get well who might otherwise have died of diseases like leukemia, kidney failure, and herpes virus encephalitis cannot be described in words.Quote from Gertrude B. Elion's lecture notes.