Cyclosporin, the drug that issued in the modern era of immunosuppression and thus solid organ transplant was discovered in a soil sample from Hadangervidda in Norway (roughly between Oslo and Bergen). It is a product secreted by a fungus that helps suppress the highly conserved phosphatase, calcineurin.
Other immunosuppressants, like tacrolimus and sirolimus were discovered in soil samples from Japan and Easter Island respectively.
Isn’t pharmacognosy fun?
