Chinese pharmacist and chemist, Tu Youyou (b. 1930) was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2011 for discovering artemisinin, which is used as a treatment for malaria.
A medical vocation
Tu Youyou was born on December 30, 1930 in Ningbo, on the east coast of China. She grew up with her four brothers, raised by a stay-at-home mother and a father who worked in a bank. His family attaches great importance to the education of children, and Youyou has the opportunity to attend the best schools in his region. There she met Li Tingzhao, whom she later married and had two daughters with.
At sixteen, the young girl contracts tuberculosis. Forced to stop her studies for two years and receive home care, she keeps from this experience the desire to embark on a career in medical research.
“If I could learn and have (medical) skills, I could not only keep myself healthy but also cure many other patients. » (If I could develop (medical) skills, I could not only stay healthy, but also cure many other patients.)
Traditional Chinese medicine
After graduating from high school, Tu Youyou entered Peking University as a pharmacy student. There she learned a wide range of pharmaceutical sciences, from Western pharmacology to the study of medicinal plants, including phytochemistry and the extraction of active principles from plants.
Graduated in 1955, Youyou was assigned to the Institute of Chinese Materia Medica (Institute of Chinese Medical Materials) of the New Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (academy of traditional Chinese medicine). His first research project is on Lobelia chinensis , a plant used in traditional Chinese medicine to fight against a parasitic worm. She then followed, between 1959 and 1962, a training program on traditional Chinese medicine. At the time, too few Chinese doctors were encouraged to learn both Chinese and Western medicine, and Youyou completed his training. She acquires valuable knowledge and skills.
“The traditional way of processing was developed and summarized from thousands of years of experience in the traditional Chinese medical practices, with a belief that processing could alter the properties and functions of remedies (…) Knowledge of such processing, in combination with the scientific explanation, benefited my work enormously. »
(The traditional method of transformation was developed from thousands of years of experience of traditional Chinese medical practices, with the idea that the treatment can alter the properties and functions of remedies (…) Knowledge of this treatment, associated with the scientific explanation, has been very beneficial for my work.)
Malaria treatment
During the Vietnam War, an epidemic of malaria decimated the army of North Vietnam, to the point of killing more soldiers than the war itself. Ho Chi Minh then turned to Zhou Enlai, Prime Minister of the People's Republic of China, to find a solution. Malaria epidemics then ravaged several provinces in southern China, and Mao Zedong set up a secret project aimed at discovering a cure. Starting on May 23, 1967, the program retains the name "Project 523".
In 1969, Tu Youyou was appointed head of Project 523 at the Institute of Chinese Materia Medica. His new responsibilities, although stimulating, involve significant pressure related to the challenge and the tight schedule, but also the sacrifice of his private life:to devote himself to his research, Youyou must be away from his family for years. Her husband being also absent, she must leave her youngest daughter with her parents and her eldest daughter in boarding school.
Originally sent to Hainan to study patients suffering from malaria, Youyou had the idea of studying traditional Chinese herbal remedies. She delves into history, visits traditional medicine practitioners across the country, and lists the remedies they use to test. In 1971, his team had already tested more than 2,000 traditional remedies and tested 380 plant extracts.
Among these extracts, Artemisia annua , mugwort annual, is effective when Youyou uses methods drawn from a work by the 4 th scholar century Ge Hong. In 1972, his team managed to specifically extract the active substance, artemisinin. To save time, Youyou asks to be the first human test subject. “As head of this research group, I had the responsibility” (As project manager, I was responsible for this). The tests are conclusive. Artemisinin is now considered the most effective treatment for malaria, which kills around 500,000 people a year. The discovery of Youyou and his team saves millions of lives.
Career and rewards
For his research, Tu Youyou was awarded the "National Invention Award" and the "National Top Ten Discovery Award in Science and Technology" for his research results. In 1984, she received the title of "Eminent Scientist". Promoted to the highest academic rank in China, she became director of research at the Chinese Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Beijing and head of the Artemisinin Research and Development Center.
Her work earned Tu Youyou the Albert-Lasker Prize for Clinical Medical Research in 2011, then the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2015.