Rapamycin was the original name given to this bio-chemical compound produced by the bacterium Streptomyces hygroscopicus. It was first discovered in a soil sample from Easter Island in 1964 by a Canadian scientific expedition. It was isolated for the first time in 1972 by Surendra Nath Sehgal and colleagues in Montreal from the samples of Streptomyces hygroscopicus.
The compound was originally named rapamycin after the native name of the island, Rapa Nui (and thus the design of our logo at the top of this page). But now there are many different brand and generic names that people use to refer to rapamycin and related compounds. If you’re thinking of taking rapamycin, you should learn all the names of this important medicine.
Read the full story here: Rapamycin Naming Conventions (part 2)