In Memoriam: Former NCI Branch Chief, Dr. Gordon Cragg

It is with sadness and appreciation for a life well lived that we share that Gordon M. Cragg, Ph.D. passed away on Monday, August 25, 2025, at the age of 89. He was a former chief of the Natural Products Branch (NPB), Developmental Therapeutics Program in the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis at NCI. Dr. Cragg pursued undergraduate studies in chemistry at Rhodes University, earned a doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Oxford, and performed post-doctoral research at UCLA. He joined NPB in 1984 after working at the Cancer Research Institute at Arizona State University.

After joining NPB, Gordon was tasked with sourcing the necessary supplies of the Pacific yew tree (Taxus brevifolia) to produce enough Taxol to support its continuing use as an anticancer agent in clinical trials. These efforts were successful and led to FDA’s approval of Taxol for the treatment of refractory ovarian cancer in 1992. Taxol has gone on to be a widely used clinical treatment for a variety of cancers, and for his contributions to the development of Taxol, Gordon received the NIH Award of Merit in 1991. Gordon retired from NCI in 2004 but was convinced to stay on as an NIH Special Volunteer until 2022 to help guide NCI’s efforts in natural product discovery.

In addition to his significant contributions to the clinical development of Taxol, in the late 1980s Gordon managed the revision and renewal of NCI’s efforts to cooperatively collect and extract marine, plant, and microbial samples from 25 countries. This resulted in the establishment of NCI’s Natural Product Repository, which now contains more than 200,000 natural product extracts. Researchers throughout the United States continue to receive extracts from this repository for use in discovery of molecules from nature that have a positive effect on human health. Gordon received another NIH Merit Award in 2004 for “leadership in establishing international collaborative research in biodiversity and natural products drug discovery” in acknowledgement of his work throughout the world.

During his postdoctoral work at UCLA, Gordon met his future wife, Ms. Jacqueline Tuers. Gordon and Jacqui had been married for 58 years until his passing. He will be missed as much for his personal grace and kindness to others as for his scientific achievements. Gordon, the son of a minister, was unfailingly kind to his colleagues and to the numerous researchers around the world with whom he collaborated to help achieve their goals. Gordon negotiated numerous international agreements and was an able diplomat who brought both passion and compassion to his efforts for NCI. His was a life well lived.