An end to division

A new cancer treatment more potent than the best-selling cancer drug taxol is
working well in human trials. Epothilone, which comes from soil-dwelling
organisms called myxobacteria, stops cancer cells dividing as taxol does. When a
cell splits in two, elastic protein threads draw the chromosomes apart. But
epothilone binds to these “tubulins” and halts a tumour’s runaway cell division.
“Epothilone stops the chromosomes from being pulled apart,” says Herbie Newell
of the Newcastle University Cancer Research Unit.