အာရှ အမျိုးသမီး သိပ်ပံပညာရှင်တဦးအား အမေရိကန်ဆေးဘက်ဆိုင်ရာ ထူးချွန်ဆုချီးမြှင့်ခြင်း Asian Scientist awarded prestigious Medical prize
PareByokeအသက် ရှစ်ဆယ်တစ်နှစ်အရွယ်ရှိ အာရှ အမျိုးသမီး သိပ်ပံပညာရှင်တဦးအား အမေရိကန်ဆေးဘက်ဆိုင်ရာ ထူးချွန်ဆုချီးမြှင့်ခြင်း
Chinese Scientist Dr. Tu Youyou 屠呦呦 Wins Prestigious 2011 Lasker Award
http://www.asianscientist.com/academia/tu-youyou-屠呦呦-2011-lasker-debakey-clinical-research-award-artemisinin-malaria/
BY JULIANA CHAN
SEPTEMBER 12, 2011
81-year-old Chinese scientist Dr. Tu Youyou has won the 2011 Lasker DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for her discovery of artemisinin – a widely used antimalarial drug which has prevented millions of deaths worldwide.
AsianScientist (Sep. 12, 2011) – This year’s Lasker DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award goes to 81-year-old Tu Youyou (屠呦呦) for the discovery of artemisinin and its use in the treatment of malaria – a medical advance that has saved millions of lives across the globe, especially in the developing world.
The Award, announced today by the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, carries a US$250,000 prize per category and is widely considered to be the most prestigious medical award in the United States.
Tu’s pioneering work on malaria began amid the Chinese Cultural Revolution in the 1960s when the Chinese government launched a clandestine military research program aimed at finding a remedy for the deadly scourge.
The operation, dubbed Project 523 for the day it was announced (May 23, 1967), set out to battle the disease which was developing resistance to chloroquine, the standard of care for malaria at that time.
Tu combed ancient texts and folk remedies for possible leads, and by 1971, had made 380 extracts from 200 herbs. Her team then tested the extracts individually against the malaria-causing parasite from infected mice.
One of the extracts from Qinghao — Artemisia annua L., or sweet wormwood (青蒿素) — dramatically inhibited parasite growth in the animals.
However, the results were not reproducible, so Tu refined the extraction process at low temperatures and removed a harmful acidic portion of the extract that did not contribute to antimalarial activity. These steps helped to boost potency and reduce toxicity.
At a March 1972 meeting of the Project 523 group’s key participants, Tu reported that the neutral plant extract wiped out the malarial-causing agent in the blood of mice and monkeys. A purified version obtained later that year was shown be effective in treating human patients.
The first English-language scientific literature citing successful clinical trials for artemisinin appeared in late 1979 and two years later, Tu presented her findings at an international meeting sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank, and United Nations Development Business (UNDB).
Artemisin is still the most powerful anti-malarial drug currently available, and an artemisinin-based drug combination is now the standard regimen for the disease. The WHO lists artemisinin and related agents in its catalog of “Essential Medicines.”
In 2008, 247 million people were infected with malaria which led to almost one million deaths. Pockets of resistance have cropped up and since 2006, the WHO has recommended treatments that combine an unrelated chemical with an artemisinin-based compound.
“Today it is clear that Tu’s insight and vision have saved millions of lives, particularly in the developing world, and continues to yield long-term medical benefits in the ongoing fight against this deadly disease,” the Lasker Foundation writes.
Other 2011 Lasker Award winners are Dr. Arthur L. Horwich and Dr. Franz-Ulrich Hartl in the basic medical research category for their discoveries about protein folding.
Lasker award to Dr Tu Youyou for the development of artemisinin therapy | topnaman | Malaria blog
Congratulations to Dr Tu Youyou for her well-deserved Lasker award (considered a precursor to the Nobel prize) in clinical sciences (hat tip: Mariam).
Dr Youyou recieved the honor for her painstaking work screening traditional Chinese herbs for antimalarial properties as part of military project 523 (more on the military and malaria here). The operation isolated Artemisia (also known as sweet wormwood) extracts, refined production, removed toxic elements, and conducted initial human trials which led to the development of the most potent antimalarial drug discovered to date. Artemisinin combination therapies are now the first-line treatment for Plasmodium falciparum in nearly all countries and cure millions of patients each year. The Lasker site includes a fantastic recount (much better than sparse biographies the Nobel committee posts) detailing this great story of scientific rigor applied to a rich knowledge heritage.
‘America’s Nobel’ awarded to Chinese scientist – USATODAY.com
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/story/2011-09-12/lasker-awards/50371124/1
One of medicine’s most prestigious prizes this year goes to scientists who discovered how ‘machines’ within cells control the folding of proteins, a researcher who discovered a new treatment for malaria in ancient Chinese herbal tradition and a health center that has made a specialty of turning scientific advances into innovative therapies.
The Lasker Awards, announced today come with a $250,000 honorarium given each group of researchers. Created in 1945 by the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, they are known as “America’s Nobels.”
Many recipients have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize. The awards will be presented on Sept. 23 in New York City.
Clinical Research
Tu Youyou of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, receives the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for her discovery of the malaria drug artemisinin, which has saved millions from dying from malaria, especially in the developing world…..
Tu, 81, began working on malaria during China’s Cultural Revolution, when the government launched a secret military project to find a remedy to one of the world’s most deadly diseases. Tu went through traditional Chinese medical and folk remedy texts looking for possible treatments. One, the extracts from Artemisia annua L., or sweet wormwood, stopped the parasite’s growth. In 1972 they produced a drug that could be used to treat humans….
Dr. Tu Youyou, Antimalarial Drug Pioneer, Earns Lasker Honor – NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/13/health/13lasker.html?_r=1
The Lasker Awards, announced on Monday by the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, carry a $250,000 prize per category and are widely considered the nation’s most prestigious medical awards.
Besides Dr. Arthur L. Horwich and Dr. Franz-Ulrich Hartl, who won the award for basic medical research for their discoveries about protein folding, the foundation is honoring an 81-year-old Chinese scientist for her work on turning an herbal medicine into a widely used antimalarial drug.
The scientist is Dr. Tu Youyou, and the antimalarial drug is artemisinin, which was discovered decades ago.
Dr. Tu and her colleagues began their work in the 1960s, during the Cultural Revolution, when the Chinese government began a project to find a new malaria drug that could replace the standard treatment, chloroquine, which was losing effectiveness as malaria parasites developed resistance.
They scoured the literature on ancient Chinese remedies and collected 380 extracts from 200 herbs that offered promise. One of the plants they studied was sweet wormwood, or Artemisia annua, which was used by Chinese herbalists centuries ago to treat fever.
Dr. Tu and her team discovered a way to extract an active substance from the plant, removed a toxic portion of it, and demonstrated that it wiped out the malaria-causing parasite in animals. The resulting drug, artemisinin, was later shown to cure malaria in humans.
Today, artemisinin and its derivatives are typically coupled with other treatments to combat malaria, and the World Health Organization recommends this combination therapy as the “first-line treatment” against the disease.
“It is clear that Tu’s insight and vision have saved millions of lives, particularly in the developing world, and continues to yield long-term medical benefits in the ongoing fight against this deadly disease,” the foundation said.
Tu Youyou – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_Youyou
Tu Youyou (Chinese: 屠呦呦; 1930-), is a Chinese woman medical scientist, pharmaceutical chemist, and educator. She was awarded the 2011 Lasker Award in Clinical Medicine for discovering artemisinin (also known as Qinghaosu). [1]
Tu was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China on 30 December 1930.[2] When she was a high school student, she become interested in both traditional Chinese medicine and modern western medicine.
In 1951, Tu matriculated at Peking University School of Medicine (In 1952, the Medical School became independent Beijing Medical College, which was renamed as Beijing Medical University in 1985. On 3 April 2000, Beijing Medical University was merged with Peking University and now it is Peking University Health Science Center).[3] Tu studied at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and graduated in 1955. Later Tu was trained for two and a half years in traditional Chinese medicine.
Tu worked at the Academy of Chinese Medicine (now named as China Academy of Chinese Medical Research) in Beijing after graduation. Tu was promoted to tenured researcher in 1980 (as graduate tutor), and in 2001 promoted to academic adviser for doctorate candidates. Currently she is the Chief Scientist in the Academy.[4]
Malaria
Tu started her malaria research in China when the Great Cultural Revolution was going on. She discovered artemisinin,[5] which has saved millions of lives, especially in the developing world.[6] Tu also studied the chemical structure and pharmacology of artemisinin.
Awards
- September 2011, GlaxoSmithKline Outstanding Achievement Award in Life Science[citation needed]
- September 2011, Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research[10]
http://www.mdpi.com/journal/molecules/special_issues/artemisinin/