Tu Youyou

Tu Youyou is a great scientist from China. She wanted to help people who were sick. She looked at old books about plants. She found a plant called sweet wormwood.

She learned that hot water could hurt the plant. She used cold liquid to get the good parts out instead. This helped her make a new medicine. This medicine treats a sickness called malaria.

Her work has saved millions of lives. Many people in hot lands can stay healthy now.

Tu won a very big prize called the Nobel Prize. She was the first woman in China to win it. She is a hero for science.

Tu Youyou is a famous scientist from China. She studied how to treat malaria. Malaria is a sickness that makes people very ill. In the 1960s, many people were dying from it. Tu joined a secret group called Project 523. This group wanted to find new ways to fight the sickness.

Tu looked at old books about plants. She studied 640 old recipes for medicine. Her team tested over 2,000 recipes from different herbs. They found a plant called sweet wormwood. This plant could help stop fevers.

At first, the team used hot water to make medicine. But hot water hurt the plant's power. Tu read an old book from the year 340. It said to use cold water instead. Tu used a cold liquid to find the best part of the plant. She named this part artemisinin. This new medicine has saved millions of lives around the world.

Tu was the first woman from China to win a Nobel Prize. She won it in 2015 for her medical work. She also won the Lasker Award. Her work changed how we treat malaria today.

Tu Youyou is a famous Chinese scientist. She is a malariologist, which is a person who studies malaria. Malaria is a serious sickness that can cause high fevers. Her work helped find a way to treat this disease. This discovery has saved millions of lives in many places. These places include South China, Africa, and South America.

In 1967, a secret group called Project 523 began. This project wanted to find new ways to fight malaria. Tu became the head of her research group in 1969. She went to Hainan to study people with the sickness. Scientists had already tried 240,000 different things without success. Tu decided to look at old Chinese herbal recipes instead. She studied 640 different recipes in her own notebook.

Tu's team tested over 2,000 herbal recipes from 200 different plants. They found a plant called sweet wormwood. This plant was very helpful for stopping fevers. At first, the team used hot water to make extracts. However, the hot water damaged the active ingredient in the plant. Tu read an old book from the year 340. It said to use cold water to soak the herb. She used a low-temperature liquid called ether to get the best results.

In 1972, her team found the pure substance. They named it artemisinin. In 1973, Tu accidentally made a version called dihydroartemisinin. She even volunteered to be the first person to test it. She wanted to make sure it was safe for humans. Tu was born in Ningbo, China, in 1930. She studied at Peking University Medical School. She graduated from the pharmacy school in 1955.

Tu Youyou has won many big awards for her work. She won the Lasker Award in 2011. In 2015, she won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. She was the first woman from China to win a Nobel Prize. She also received the Medal of the Republic in 2019. This is the highest honor in China. Her work connects old herbal knowledge with modern medicine.

Tu Youyou is a renowned Chinese malariologist and pharmaceutical chemist. A malariologist is a scientist who specializes in studying malaria. Malaria is a disease that causes severe symptoms like intermittent fevers. Tu's research led to the discovery of artemisinin and dihydroartemisinin. These substances are used to treat malaria effectively. Her breakthrough in twentieth-century tropical medicine has saved millions of lives. This impact is felt across South China, Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America.

In 1967, a secret drug discovery project named Project 523 began. This project was started after North Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh requested help. He needed a treatment for soldiers on the Ho Chi Minh trail. Many of these soldiers suffered from malaria resistant to chloroquine. Chloroquine is a drug that had previously been used to fight the disease. To address this, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai convinced Mao Zedong to launch the project. Tu Youyou was appointed head of her research group in 1969.

Tu began her search by studying patients in Hainan. She realized that traditional methods were not working. Scientists worldwide had already screened over 240,000 compounds without success. Tu decided to investigate ancient Chinese medical classics instead. She visited practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine across the country. She recorded her findings in a notebook called A Collection of Single Practical Prescriptions for Anti-Malaria. This notebook contained a summary of 640 different prescriptions.

Her team eventually screened over 2,000 traditional Chinese recipes. They created 380 herbal extracts from approximately 200 different herbs. These extracts were then tested on mice to check for effectiveness. They discovered that sweet wormwood, or Artemisia annua, was particularly successful. This plant was known to help with intermittent fevers. Tu found a clue in a 1,600-year-old text titled Emergency Prescriptions Kept Up One's Sleeve. This text was written by Ge Hong in the year 340.

The team initially struggled because they used hot water for extraction. They learned that hot water actually damages the active ingredient in the plant. Tu proposed using a low-temperature ether extraction process instead. Ether is a liquid used to pull specific substances out of a mixture. This method allowed them to isolate the effective antimalarial compound. In 1972, her team obtained the pure substance and named it artemisinin. In 1973, Tu accidentally synthesized a version called dihydroartemisinin while studying the molecule's carbonyl group.

Tu demonstrated great courage during the testing phases of her work. She volunteered to be the first human test subject for the new substance. She wanted to ensure it was safe before conducting clinical trials. She experienced no bad reactions during her own testing. Following this, she conducted successful clinical trials with human patients. Her research results were eventually published anonymously in 1977. She later presented her findings to the World Health Organization in 1981.

Tu Youyou has received many prestigious international honors. In 2011, she won the Lasker Award in clinical medicine. In 2015, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. She shared this Nobel Prize with William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura. Tu was the first female citizen of the People's Republic of China to win a Nobel Prize. She also received the Medal of the Republic in 2019. This is the highest honorary medal in China. Her career connects ancient herbal wisdom with modern pharmaceutical science.