Botulinum toxin
In 1895 (seventy-five years later), Émile van Ermengem, professor of bacteriology and a student of Robert Koch, correctly described "Clostridium botulinum" as the bacterial source of the toxin. Thirty-four attendees at a funeral were poisoned by eating partially salted ham, an extract of which was found to cause botulism-like paralysis in laboratory animals. Van Ermengem isolated and grew the bacterium, and described its toxin, which was later purified by P Tessmer Snipe and Hermann Sommer.
Raymond C. Stevens
In 1992, Stevens worked with researchers at Gilead on the structural studies of neuraminidase inhibitors that eventually became Tamiflu, and later partnered with Roche. After the initial experience with structure based drug discovery from 1992–1997 with Gilead and Tamiflu, Stevens focused on understanding the basic mechanism of how Botox (botulinum toxin) works, and on ways to use this scaffold for next generation protein therapeutics. In parallel to the work on botulinum toxin, Stevens worked on the enzymes involved in the catecholamine biosynthetic pathway, specifically the three aromatic amino acid hydroxylases including phenylalanine hydroxylase. From 1999-2004 Stevens was involved in the startup of Syrrx that developed the marketed drug Nesina for type II diabetes. From 2000–2010, Stevens has worked with BioMarin Pharmaceutical to develop Kuvan (tetrahydrobiopterin) and assisted in the design and development of PEG-PAL (pegylated Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase) as treatments for mild and classical phenylketonuria (PKU). In 2008 Stevens started Receptos that developed an S1P1 agonist for multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel disease and in 2011 he started RuiYi that developed an anti-CB1 antibody for liver fibrosis.