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One of the most powerful cancer drugs on the market — Taxol or, generically, paclitaxel — comes from the Pacific yew tree. It was discovered in the 1960s during a massive government program to find medications in plant extracts. It worked remarkably well in its first human trials, but environmentalists realized that harvesting more Taxol could drive the Pacific yew into extinction. The race to create the drug in a lab was on.

French researchers led by Pierre Potier learned in 1988 that they could make the drug by modifying a chemical from European yew trees, but their approach was too inefficient for mainstream production. Robert Holton, a medicinal chemist at Florida State University, built upon their work and developed the first viable approach to making Taxol in the lab in 1994.

Other researchers have followed suit, and some have tried to improve upon the original drug with better delivery systems. Several cousins of the medicine, including Docetaxel, are on the market today and in clinical trials. Abraxane, which is Taxol wrapped in a protein nanoparticle, has been approved by the FDA. Another nano-packaged Taxol, Xyotax, is in Phase III clinical trials.

Credit: pellaea/flickr