Joseph H. Burchenal

Who was Joseph H. Burchenal?

Joseph H. Burchenal, MD was an American oncologist, and a winner of the 1972 Albert Lasker Award for Medical Research for his work on developing a chemotherapy for Burkitt's lymphoma. His research with George Hitchings and Gertrude Elion led to the creation of the leukemia treatment methotrexate in 1953. Hitchings and Elion would later be awarded the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Sir James Black for the synthesis of methotrexate. Dr. Burchenal died in Hanover New Hampshire on March 8, 2006. He was 93 years old.