Warfarin
Warfarin (Coumadin) is named for WARF, and the story of its discovery is emblematic of the "Wisconsin Idea" and the relationship of the university to the Wisconsin public. In 1933 a farmer from Deer Park showed up unannounced at the School of Agriculture and walked into a professor's laboratory with a milk can full of blood which would not coagulate. In his truck, he had also brought a dead heifer and some spoiled clover hay. He wanted to know what had killed his cow. In 1941, Karl Paul Link successfully isolated the anticoagulant factor, which initially found commercial application as a rodent-killer. Warfarin is now one of the most widely prescribed medicines in the world, used in vascular and heart disease to prevent stroke and thrombosis.
Read more about this topic: Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation