A chemist, Wall and colleague Mansukh C. Wani studied extracts from thousands of plants and animals looking for ways to cure cancer. Among their findings were paclitaxel (better known as Taxol, discovered in 1966 in the Pacific Yew tree) and camptothecin.
The two anti-tumor drugs are now commonly used to fight multiple types of cancer. “Taxol is considered one of the most important anticancer drugs of the past three decades,” said a spokesman for the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation. “It is used to treat a wide variety of solid tumors but is best known for its effectiveness on ovarian carcinoma, a tumor that is very difficult to treat.”
Wall died July 9 in Chapel Hill, N.C., from heart and kidney failure. He was 85.