BREAKTHROUGH: Dr. Elion, would you please describe for us -- in lay
terms -- the work for which you received the Nobel Prize?
ELION: My colleague Dr. George Hitchings and I received the Award for the way we
approached the discovery of new drugs -- a body of work that spanned nearly 40 years. Ours
was very targeted biochemical research in which we attempted to interfere with DNA
synthesis.
You see, every living organism needs to reproduce. And when it does, it has to make
DNA. By interrupting this process, you create a situation where the organism can not grow
and multiply. Our goal was to select specific organisms that we wanted to get rid of and
target them in this manner without hurting the host -- which is a bit tricky. In fact, it
wasn't a foregone conclusion that our efforts would work. But I'm happy to say they did.
Our research yielded a number of very important drugs, which now help to treat acute
childhood leukemia, bacterial and viral herpes infections, and malaria, as well as to
prevent organ transplant rejection, among other medical concerns.
BREAKTHROUGH: What is your definition of a "breakthrough"?
ELION: I think there are two types of breakthroughs. The first is what I call a
serendipitous event. For example, penicillin was discovered when Alexander Fleming, who
was working with staphylococcus bacteria, found a bacteria-free circle around a mold
growth on a culture plate. He then found that an extract of that mold -- even when it was
diluted 800 times -- could still prevent the growth of bacteria. The mold was called
penicillium notatum -- and the rest is history!
The second type occurs after a whole series of research events. Often these discoveries
are not the work of one person alone, but of several people, each of whom adds more and
more information to a body of knowledge.
Take, for example, our work on organ transplants. In order to find answers to the
question "Why doesn't an organ survive when it is transplanted from one individual to
another?", someone had to study the basic immunology of how the body reacts to
foreign proteins. One had to understand the genetic nature of the immune response. One had
to interfere with that response by targeting the stimulated lymphocytes (white cells). And
to make such a drug, one had to know what the building blocks of DNA are. Not only that,
but the drug that finally worked to prevent rejection was actually derived from a drug
that had originally been found effective in treating leukemia. So, you see, in the back of
every discovery is another discovery!
BREAKTHROUGH: From your perspective, what are some of the major breakthroughs in
medicine and health within the past, say, 200 years?
ELION: I would count X-rays and the Curies' discovery of radioactivity as major
breakthroughs. Radioactivity not only helps us combat disease, it also enables us to study
how drugs work in the body. Then there is Pasteur who found that bacteria cause disease
and infection. The ability to transplant organs in a way that will be retained by the body
is another real milestone. The serendipitous discovery of penicillin launched the search
for antibiotics in all kinds of organisms. And the discovery of the genetic code opened a
window onto research into hereditary characteristics and diseases.
Vaccines are yet another breakthrough. It started with Edward Jenner, who discovered
that an inoculation of cowpox virus -- a close relative of the virus that causes smallpox
-- could stimulate an immune response that would prevent people from getting smallpox.
Later, Pasteur developed a vaccine against rabies, which consisted of a weakened form of
the rabies virus. Smallpox, rabies, whooping cough, measles, mumps, polio -- we've been
able to save millions of lives by these discoveries alone.
BREAKTHROUGH: Where do you feel the next most exciting breakthroughs will come from --
and why?
ELION: I do not have a crystal ball, but I think immunological approaches to the
treatment of cancer are really beginning to take off. This means scientists are working on
all sorts of manipulations to teach the body to recognize cancer cells as foreign, so our
bodies will reject them.
In addition, there is a tremendous amount of work now under way on the chemotherapy of
viruses. In this regard, I think we'll eventually conquer AIDS. But there are also a wide
range of new viruses that keep cropping up -- seemingly, all of a sudden. The ebola virus
is an example. This entire area is now a major field of medical research.
BREAKTHROUGH: You are now serving in an advisory capacity for the new public television
series BREAKTHROUGH. Why did you decide to participate?
ELION: Because I'm very interested in teaching people about what science has done for
them and what it can do. Without an educated populace, there will be no support for basic
research. People tend not to support what they don't understand. I particularly want to
reach out to young people. In fact, I am out talking to them constantly, trying to make
them realize how thrilling science can be and how fulfilling it is to be able to cure sick
people. I don't think anyone tells them that. I think we need to.
