In 1989, researcher Judah Folkman and his team from Boston Children’s Hospital produced a synthetic compound that inhibited the growth of blood vessels associated with tumors.

Folkman postulated that in order to survive and grow, tumors require blood vessels, and that by cutting off that blood supply, a cancer could be starved into remission. Over the years, Folkman and a growing team of researchers isolated the proteins and unraveled the processes that regulate angiogenesis.

Fumagillin was found by Ingber in the Folkman laboratory to inhibit endothelial cell proliferation without causing endothelial cell apoptosis. Scientists at Takeda Chemical in Osaka, Japan had made a synthetic analogue of fumagillin, called TNP-470, which inhibits endothelial proliferation in vitro at a concentration 3 logs lower than the concentration necessary to inhibit fibroblasts, and tumor cells.