29 Tu Youyou

Tu Youyou

Time period:

20th century – present

Subject:

Pharmacology, Medicine

Biography:

Tu Youyou was born in 1930 on the East coast of China. She had a large family consisting of herself, her parents, and her four brothers. Their family heavily focussed on education for their children. At the age of 16, she contracted tuberculosis, which stalled her academic career. Once she recovered and headed back to school 2 years later, she dived right into studying medicine, as she decided her purpose in life was to find cures for diseases. She graduated from pharmaceutics at Beijing Medical College at the age of 24, and has spent her career at the Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Summary of their contributions:

In 1969, during the Vietnam War, Tu was tasked by the Chinese government to find a treatment for malaria. The parasite that caused malaria had become resistant to the standard malaria treatment at the time. She and her team spent countless hours testing 2000 potential remedies. They eventually found an extract from the sweet wormwood plant, which was used in ancient Chinese medicinal texts to treat intermittent fevers. By 1972, her team was able to isolate the active compound and named it qinghaosu or artemisinin. After a clinical trial, which Tu also participated in, it was proven to be 100% successful against the parasite and cured the malaria disease. She was awarded the Clinical Medical Research Award by the Lasker Foundation in 2011 and the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2015 for this discovery.

Integration with the BC Secondary Science Curriculum:

Tu Youyou’s work can be showcased within the BC Science curriculum. It can be related to the micro-organisms / immunity content in Grade 8. Her ideas can be associated with 2 curricular competencies.

1. Processing and analyzing data and information: Apply First Peoples perspectives and knowledge, other ways of knowing, and local knowledge as sources of information. She and her team used local knowledge and texts as sources to find plants to research / test. It’s a great example of using literature that is not commonly thought of in scientific research, and that knowledge can be drawn from many different sources.
2. Applying and innovating: Contribute to care for self, others, community, and world through personal or collaborative approaches. She collaborated with her team in order to find and create a novel cure for malaria. They spent countless hours testing / researching to create a cure for the greater good of humanity, and even put their lives on the line by participating in the clinical trials. While this may be a more extreme example of this curricular competency, it shows students that their dedication and care can lead to amazing results that can not only benefit themselves but their community and the world.

References:

The Nobel Foundation. (2016). The nobel prize in physiology or medicine 2015. NobelPrize.org. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2015/tu/biographical/

Rogers, K. (2022, December 26). Tu Youyou. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tu-Youyou