Alimta developer to be inducted into Chemistry Hall of Fame

Princeton University announced Edward Taylor, its A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Organic Chemistry Emeritus, will be inducted into the American Chemical Society (ACS) Division of Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame in 2010. Additionally, Taylor has been inducted into the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame and was selected to receive the 2010 Alfred Burger Award in Medicinal Chemistry from the ACS. Taylor was instrumental in the development of Alimta, a drug manufactured by Eli Lilly and Co. and approved for the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration in 2004.

Taylor was recently honored for his accomplishments at the Celebrate Princeton Invention reception, held Dec. 18. He developed Alimta in partnership with scientists at Eli Lilly and Co.  after spending more than 40 years on the Princeton faculty. However, he began research that would lead to the mesothelioma drug’s development while a graduate student at Cornell University.

According to a Princeton news release, Taylor became fascinated by reports of a compound obtained from spinach and liver that had a unique chemical structure with a nucleus previously only observed in the pigments of butterfly wings. The compound from liver, now known as folic acid, he found was essential for the synthesis of DNA and RNA, and for the growth of cells.  Taylor observed that changes to the structure of folic acid could transform it from a growth-promoting to a growth-inhibiting compound, and dedicated his career to determine how it could be used to kill cancer cells.

Since its approval by the FDA in 2004, the drug has received three additional FDA approvals, most recently in July when it became the first chemotherapy approved for use as a maintenance therapy for patients with locally advanced or metastatic nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer. Alimta has been successful in improving the quality of life and extending the lifespan of millions of cancer patients in nearly 100 countries around the world.

Taylor has previously been honored with the ACS Heroes of Chemistry Award, the International Society of Heterocyclic Chemistry Senior Award in Heterocyclic Chemistry, and the Research and Development Council of New Jersey’s Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award for Invention.

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Tags: ACS Heroes of Chemistry, Alimta, American Chemical Society, Chemistry Hall of Fame, chemotherapy, DNA, Edward Taylor, Eli Lilly and Co., folic acid, lung cancer, Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame, mesothelioma, New Jersey, Princeton University, RNA

This entry was postedon Friday, January 1st, 2010 at 8:00 amand is filed under News, People, Research/Treatment.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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