Taxol is arguably the most celebrated, talked about, and controversial natural product in recent years. Celebrated because of its efficacy as an anticancer drug and because its discovery has provided powerful support for policies concerned with biodiversity. Talked about because in the early 1990s the American public was bombarded with news reports about the molecule and its host, the slow-growing Pacific yew tree. Controversial because the drug and the yew tree bec… More >>
The Story of Taxol: Nature and Politics in the Pursuit of an Anti-Cancer Drug
Tags: Anticancer, anticancer drug, cancer drug, discovery, Drug, early 1990s, efficacy, molecule, Nature, news reports, pacific yew tree, Politics, Pursuit, Story, Taxol
#1 by Urs Peter Roos on February 1, 2010 - 6:36 pm
…I bought this book because some years back I did basic research with this remarkable substance and wanted to learn more about its background.The Story of Taxol is a very scholarly book, with footnotes almost as long as chapters, and extensive literature references. As the subtitle makes clear, the tale is mostly about politics, viz. politics within the National Cancer Institute and other agencies involved in the procurement of this initially natural chemotherapeutic agent. In minute details we are also informed about collections of bark of the pacific yew, the principal raw material for taxol prior to its total synthesis, as well as about the fulfilment or non-fulfilment of collection quotas. Because taxol’s mode of action at the cellular and molecular level is completely different from that of other inhibitors of cell division it accounted for much activity in cell biology. The book is silent about this aspect. Whereas It may be a valuable addition to some libraries, overall it clearly offers too little of interest to the individual reader…
Rating: 3 / 5