![]() In 1969, Tu, then 39 years old, had an idea of screening Chinese herbs. Scientists worldwide had screened over 240,000 compounds without success. Tu was initially sent to Hainan, where she studied patients who had been infected with the disease. In early 1969, Tu was appointed head of the Project 523 research group at her institute. Because malaria was also a major cause of death in China's southern provinces, especially Guangdong and Guangxi, Zhou Enlai convinced Mao Zedong to set up a secret drug discovery project named Project 523 after its starting date. In 1967, during the Vietnam War, President Ho Chi Minh of North Vietnam asked Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai for help in developing a malaria treatment for his soldiers trooping down the Ho Chi Minh trail, where a majority came down with a form of malaria which is resistant to chloroquine. Malaria įurther information: Project 523, artemisinin, and dihydroartemisinin Tu carried on her work in the 1960s and 70s, including during China's Cultural Revolution.ĭuring her early years in research, Tu studied Lobelia chinensis, a traditional Chinese medicine believed to be useful for treating schistosomiasis, caused by trematodes which infect the urinary tract or the intestines, which was widespread in the first half of the 20th century in South China. Later Tu was trained for two and a half years in traditional Chinese medicine.Īfter graduation, Tu worked at the Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (now the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medical Sciences ) in Beijing. Tu studied at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and graduated in 1955. In 1955, Youyou Tu graduated from Beijing Medical University School of Pharmacy and continued her research on Chinese herbal medicine in the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. From 1951 to 1955, she attended Peking University Medical School / Beijing Medical College. A tuberculosis infection interrupted her high-school education, but inspired her to go into medical research. She attended Xiaoshi Middle School for junior high school and the first year of high school, before transferring to Ningbo Middle School in 1948. Tu Youyou, when interviewed in 2011 after being awarded the 2011 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award How this links my whole life with qinghao will probably remain an interesting coincidence forever. My name, Youyou, was given by my father, who adapted it from the sentence ‘ 呦呦鹿鸣, 食野之蒿' translated as 'Deer bleat "youyou" while they are eating the wild Hao’ in the Chinese Book of Odes. Tu was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang, China, on 30 December 1930. ![]() Tu was born, educated and carried out her research exclusively in China. ![]() She is also the first Chinese person to receive the Lasker Award. Tu is the first Chinese Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine and the first female citizen of the People's Republic of China to receive a Nobel Prize in any category. She discovered artemisinin (also known as qīnghāosù, 青蒿素) and dihydroartemisinin, used to treat malaria, a breakthrough in twentieth-century tropical medicine, saving millions of lives in South China, Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America.įor her work, Tu received the 2011 Lasker Award in clinical medicine and the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with William C. Tu Youyou ( Chinese: 屠呦呦 pinyin: Tú Yōuyōu born 30 December 1930) is a Chinese pharmaceutical chemist and malariologist. Highest Science and Technology Award, China (2016)Ĭhina Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2015) ![]() Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award (2011) Beijing Medical College ( BMedSc) ĭiscovering artemisinin and dihydroartemisinin ![]()
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