If the proteasome stopped its house-cleaning duties, scientists reasoned, cancer cells would give up.

FORBES: Magazine Article

The proteasome is a cellular maid that breaks down proteins that are no longer needed.

FORBES: The Man Behind Millennium's Cancer Drug

They knew what the proteasome looked like, and they designed chemicals they thought would knock it out.

FORBES: The Man Behind Millennium's Cancer Drug

Velcade targeted an obscure complex of enzymes, called the proteasome, which acts as a kind of cellular maid.

FORBES: Millennium's Short Road For Velcade Approval

"The truth be known, I had never heard of the proteasome, " Adams says.

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Adams theorized that blocking the proteasome with a drug might overload tumor cells with proteins, causing the signaling mechanism to short-circuit.

FORBES: The Tireless Hunter

The drug works by inhibiting an enzyme called the proteasome, stopping the normal progression of cell division and causing cancer cells to self-destruct.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Early on, Adams and his colleagues thought that a drug that would slow the proteasome would hurt cancer cells much more than healthy ones.

FORBES: The Man Behind Millennium's Cancer Drug

He tracked down a researcher at the Max Planck Institute in Germany who had just mapped the 3-D structure of the proteasome, which was shaped like a six-ringed cylinder.

FORBES: The Tireless Hunter

The four were focused on the proteasome, a complex of proteins in cells that work as molecular garbage disposal units, engulfing and chopping up proteins when they are no longer needed.

FORBES: The Tireless Hunter

Only a handful of papers had explored the proteasome.

FORBES: Magazine Article