On October 5th, 215, exciting news came from Stockholm, Sweden: Tu Youyou, a female scientist in China, won the 215 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The reason is that she discovered artemisinin, which can effectively reduce the mortality rate of malaria patients. Tu Youyou is the first China native scientist to win the Nobel Prize in Science and the first Chinese scientist to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. On the morning of October 6th, Tu Youyou, who had been unwilling to be interviewed, finally invited reporters into her house, repeatedly stressing that "there is nothing to talk about". She also delivered her acceptance speech through CCTV, saying that as a scientific and technological worker, winning the Nobel Prize is a great honor. The success of artemisinin, a biological research, is the result of years of collective public relations research, and the award of artemisinin is the collective honor of China scientists.
Before the Nobel Prize, most people probably didn't know who Tu Yo Yo was. She became famous at home and abroad overnight, and artemisinin, a new antimalarial drug developed by the R&D team led by her, was also well known.
Tu Youyou was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang province on December 3th, 193. "Yo, yo, Luming Literature, the apple of the wild", and the famous sentence in The Book of Songs Xiaoya pinned the beautiful expectations of Tu Youyou's parents. She has heard and witnessed the strange curative effect of traditional Chinese medicine since she was a child, and is determined to explore its mystery. In 1951, Tu Youyou was admitted to the Department of Pharmacy of Peking University Medical College as he wished, and chose pharmacognosy, a major that most people lacked interest at that time. Among the professional courses, she is most interested in phytochemistry, materia medica and plant taxonomy. After graduating from university, Tu Youyou worked in China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine. At that time, the hospital was newly established and the conditions were difficult. In a working environment with poor equipment and no basic ventilation facilities, Tu Youyou often dealt with various chemical solutions, and once suffered from toxic hepatitis. However, she devoted herself to the research of traditional Chinese medicine and achieved many impressive results. Among them, the development of artemisinin, a drug for treating malaria, is her most outstanding achievement. When young Tu Youyou started this research, she certainly didn't realize that there was a glittering crown waiting for her to pick up on the long and tortuous road of studying "anti-malaria".
Malaria is a worldwide epidemic that seriously endangers human life and health. The World Health Organization reports that about 1 billion people in the world live in malaria-endemic areas, and about 2 million people suffer from malaria every year, and more than one million people are killed. Especially in the early 196s, the global malaria epidemic was difficult to control. At that time, the United States and Vietnam were at war, and the number of American troops in Vietnam was reduced by more than 8, due to malaria. The United States spared no expense in screening more than 2, compounds, but failed to find an ideal new antimalarial drug. Because plasmodium has developed resistance to quinoline drugs, malaria control has once again become the goal of medical circles in various countries. After the United States, Britain, France, Germany and other countries also spent a lot of manpower and material resources to find effective new structural compounds, but they have not been able to do so. Since 1964, China has resumed the research on new antimalarial drugs, and it is the mainstream of the whole work to seek a breakthrough from Chinese herbal medicines. However, through the screening of thousands of Chinese herbal medicines, there is no important discovery. In the difficult situation at home and abroad, in 1969, 39-year-old Tu Youyou was appointed as the scientific research leader of the project. She started by sorting out the medical books of past dynasties, visited old Chinese medicine practitioners everywhere, collected letters from relevant people since the establishment of the hospital, and edited the Collection of Anti-malaria Single Prescriptions, which mainly consisted of 64 prescriptions of Chinese medicine. However, a large number of samples screened have no good signs of anti-malaria. Undaunted, she screened more than 38 extracts from more than 2 kinds of Chinese medicines, and finally focused on Artemisia annua. However, a large number of experiments have found that the antimalarial effect of Artemisia annua is not ideal. She also systematically consulted the literature, paying special attention to the methods of extracting drugs from the experience of drug use in past dynasties. When she turned to the wisdom of ancient China again, Ge Hong, a famous doctor in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, said in "Elbow Emergency Prescription": "Hold Artemisia annua once, wring the juice with two liters of water, and take it all" to cure "chronic malaria". Thinking about this record, she thinks it is very likely that the effective components of Artemisia annua were destroyed at high temperature. So she switched to ethanol cold soaking, and the titer of Artemisia annua extract against mouse malaria was significantly improved. Then, the extraction with low boiling point solvent has higher titer and tends to be stable. Finally, after 19 failures, artemisinin was born. The inhibition rate of this new drug on rat malaria and monkey malaria plasmodium reached 1%.
Malaria, a demon who wantonly destroys human life and health, was subdued by a female scientist in China.
Tu Youyou wrote a wonderful life legend in the history of Chinese science and technology with indomitable fighting spirit.
"This great discovery in the history of medical development has saved the lives of millions of malaria patients all over the world every year, especially in developing countries. In the field of basic biomedicine, the value and benefits of many important discoveries are not obvious in the short term. But there are also a few, and their birth has an immediate effect and significance on the improvement of human health. Artemisinin, an antimalarial drug developed by Tu Youyou and her colleagues, is such an example. " This is the presentation of the 211 Lasker Prize.
Although the Nobel Prize in p>215 came a little late, it is fortunate after all. When the solemn rhyme of the award speech echoed over the earth, people of all colors were expressing their deep respect to the old man.