TU Youyou

TU Youyou was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, December, 1930. She graduated from School of Pharmacy, Beijing Medical College in 1955. Since assigned to the academy in 1955, she has been working in the Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Present name: China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences). She is the Tenure-track Professor and Chief Professor of the academy, and the Director of the Artemisinin Research Center of the academy.

The most outstanding contribution of TU Youyou is the discovery of a novel type of anti-malaria drug, artemisinin. Enlightened by the ancient literature of traditional Chinese medicine, TU modified the routine extracting procedure for Artemisia annua L., established the extracting procedure for anti-malarial active ingredients at low temperature. This was the breakthrough in extraction of Artemisia annua L. She then found the neutral portion of ether extractive from the herb. The extractive could reach 100% inhibition for mouse malaria parasites. TU reported the exciting gain in the “523”national meeting, and the news drove a nationwide focus on extractives of Artemisia annua L. TU and her team firstly isolated the effective pure compound—artemisinin. The clinical effectiveness of the neutral portion of ether extractive and artemisinin was firstly verified by TU and her team. Cooperated with other institutions, TU and her team determined the chemical structure of artemisinin, and provided a basis for development of derivatives of artemisinin. Artemisinin was given new drug certificate in 1986 as the first new drug approval since the Provisions for New Drug Approval was issued.

  Aremisinin, as a drug with different chemical structure and mode of action to the known anti-malarial drugs, rewrites the history of anti-malarial alkaloids containing heterocyclic nitrogen. It marks a new development direction of anti-malarial drugs. World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) as the preferred treatment for malaria since the 1990s. ACT is widely applied in the malaria epidemic regions currently, and the purchase of it reaches the amount for 300 million patients globally. According to World Malaria Report 2015 by WHO, the global malaria cases and the number of malaria deaths were 262 million and 839 thousand in 2000 respectively, the declines in incidence and death rate were 37% and 60% accordingly in 2015, and estimated 6.2 million lives are saved.

TU and her team gain a number of significant awards domestically and internationally. In 1978, the “523” team led by TU of Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine was awarded by National Congress of Science and Technology. In 1979, Anti-malaria New Drug-Artemisinin was awarded as the Second National Invention Prize. TU Youyou was honored the Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award by Lasker Foundation in 2011 since she developed a therapy that has saved millions of lives across the globe, especially in the developing world. She is the 2015 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria.

  In recent years, TU and her team have made progresses in extending new indications for artemisinin.