MSU ‘green chemistry’ produces cancer drug more efficiently

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Michigan State University chemist Kevin Walker is developing a new way to make potentially cleaner, more efficient paclitaxel – better known as the blockbuster cancer-fighting drug Taxol.

First isolated from the bark of the Pacific yew in 1967, paclitaxel has since been made by synthetically modifying an intermediate substance isolated from yew needles using toxic solvents or by fermenting cell cultures. Walker’s method employs natural enzymes instead.

Assisting Walker in the research were graduate students Danielle Nevarez, Yemane Mengistu and Irosha Nawarathne. Their findings, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (April 2, 2009), was funded by the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station.  More...

Caption: Michigan State University chemist Kevin Walker