Scientists Name Tu, Youyou (屠呦呦)
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Time period: Modern (1930 – )
Subject: Medicinal Science
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Biography: Youyou Tu is a female medical scientist and pharmaceutical chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2015. She is also the first mainland Chinese scientist to have received a Nobel Prize in a scientific category. she did so without a doctorate, a medical degree, or training abroad.
Youyou Tu was born and raised in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China. She graduated from Peking University in Beijing and continue her research on Chinese herbal medicine in the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medical Sciences.
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Summary of their contributions:
In the 1960s, North Vietnam asked China for help with battling malaria, which was causing tremendous casualties among its soldiers in the Vietnam War. Tu was appointed as the head of a project by China to find a cure for chloroquine-resistant malaria. Her research team reviewed thousands of ancient Chinese medical texts of possible malaria treatments and found a reference to sweet wormwood medicine from the ancient Chinese alchemist Ge Hong’s (around 400 A.D.) handbook. By applying modern laboratory technology, Tu’s team isolated one active compound from wormwood and distilled the compound’s active ingredient, artemisinin. Tu then shared their findings to the world but it took two decades until 1981 for the WHO recommended artemisinin combination therapy as the first line of defense against malaria. She was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for this discovery concerning a novel therapy against Malaria. In her Nobel lecture, she acknowledged “Artemisinin… is a true gift from old Chinese medicine”.
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Integration with the BC Secondary Science Curriculum:
Youyou Tu is a modern Chinese female scientist who significantly contributes to medicinal science by bringing traditional Chinese medicine to the world. Her works involve both traditional herbal Chinese medicine from ancient wisdom and modern chemistry technology from western laboratories. In Life Science 11, the first people’s knowledge of plants and medicine is also discussed in the curriculum. This example can offer students more diverse perspectives on the application of traditional medicine and its interactions with western science in modern times. As a diverse scientist, Youyou Tu contributes to science as a woman and people of color.
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References:
NobelPrize (n.d.). NobelPrize.Org. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2015/tu/facts/
The Nobel Prize | Women who changed science | Tu Youyou. (n.d.). The Nobel Prize. https://www.nobelprize.org/womenwhochangedscience/stories/tu-youyou
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