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Other prominent examples of drugs derived from natural products currently used today include the anti-fungal amphotericin B, isolated from the soil bacteria Streptomyces nodosus, the chemotherapy taxol, isolated from the bark of the Pacific yew tree, and the immunosuppressant cyclosporin, isolated from the fungus Tolypocladium inflatum.

Immune-suppressing drugs like cyclosporin and tacrolimus “revolutionized immunosuppression for human-to-human transplants” in the 1980s, said Dholakia, but they couldn’t quite convince the body to accept animal organs.

Natural macrocycles such as cyclosporin are among the most potent therapeutics identified to date.

Cyclosporin, for instance, displays anti-fungal activity yet also acts as a powerful immunosuppressant in the clinic making it useful as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis or to prevent rejection of transplanted organs.

Dr. Starzl joined the University of Pittsburgh medical school in 1981 as professor of surgery, where his studies on the anti-rejection drug cyclosporin transformed transplantation from an experimental procedure into one that gave patients a hope that they could survive an otherwise fatal organ failure.