Hitchings, George Herbert (1905-1998), was an American biochemist who helped create the first anticancer drug. In the 1940’s, Hitchings and his colleague Gertrude B. Elion found that cancer cells and disease-causing bacteria and viruses process genetic information in a manner different from that of healthy cells. That discovery enabled the two researchers to develop drugs that destroy diseased cells by interfering with their reproduction, without harming normal cells. For developing such logical new approaches to drug design, Hitchings and Elion shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Scottish researcher Sir James Black.
In the 1950’s, Hitchings and Elion developed a drug called mercaptopurine << mur kap toh PYUR een >> . Mercaptopurine was the first drug effective in treating leukemia, a form of blood cancer. The pair then created a related drug that helps prevent rejection of transplanted organs. In the 1960’s, they developed the drug acyclovir << ay SY kloh vihr >> , the first antiviral drug used to treat herpes.
Hitchings was born in Hoquiam, Washington. He earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in chemistry from the University of Washington in 1927 and 1928, respectively, and a Ph.D. in biological chemistry from Harvard University in 1933. He held a variety of teaching and research positions in the 1930’s and early 1940’s. In 1942, he became a biochemistry researcher at Burroughs Wellcome Company, where he worked for the rest of his career. Elion joined the company in 1944. Hitchings retired from active research in the mid-1970’s. He served as director of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, which supports medical research, from 1971 to 1994.
