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Received the Nobel Prize for a novel therapy against malaria.
Artemisinin-based drugs have improved health and survival for millions of people.
GOTDONE ARCHIVE · 1930 to present
4 public itemsTu Youyou
Pharmaceutical chemist
PHOTO: Bengt Nyman / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗Turned clues from traditional medicine into artemisinin, a new treatment for malaria.
What Tu got done.
Every item links to its source.SOURCENobel Prize ↗
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Extracted artemisinin from sweet wormwood.
The substance rapidly inhibits the malaria parasite and became the basis of a new class of therapies.
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Helped move the extract from laboratory work into clinical results.
Encouraging trials led the team to isolate the active component and contribute to identifying its structure.
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Joined and later led a team searching for new malaria treatments.
The research combined reviews of traditional remedies with experimental pharmaceutical work.