Monroe Eliot Wall (1916 – July 6, 2002) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

chemist, who co-discovered, with

Mansukh C. Wani Mansukh C. Wani, (died 2020), was a principal scientist (emeritus) at the Research Triangle Institute in North Carolina. He was co-discoverer of Taxol and camptothecin, two anti-cancer drugs considered standard in the treatment to fight ovarian, ...

paclitaxel Paclitaxel, sold under the brand name Taxol among others, is a chemotherapy medication used to treat ovarian cancer, esophageal cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, Kaposi's sarcoma, cervical cancer, and pancreatic cancer. It is administered b ...

and

camptothecin Camptothecin (CPT) is a topoisomerase inhibitor. It was discovered in 1966 by M. E. Wall and M. C. Wani in systematic screening of natural products for anticancer drugs. It was isolated from the Bark (botany), bark of ''Camptotheca acuminata'' (� ...

, two anti-cancer drugs considered standard in the treatment to fight ovarian, breast, lung and colon cancers. On May 27, 1987, Wall received an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

from the faculty of pharmacy at

Uppsala University Uppsala University (UU) () is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially fou ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. Wall was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1916. He completed his BS, MS, and PhD at

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

. He joined the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an executive department of the United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and producti ...

(USDA) in 1941 and worked at the USDA until 1960. That year, he started a research group at

RTI International Research Triangle Institute, operating as RTI International, is a nonprofit organization headquartered in the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, USA. RTI provides research and technical services. It was founded in 1958 with $500,000 in fu ...

, where he remained for the duration of his career.

References

External links

Monroe E. Wall, National Cancer Institute
1916 births 2002 deaths 20th-century American chemists Rutgers University alumni {{US-chemist-stub