Tu Youyou

Tu Youyou
屠呦呦
Tu in 2015
Born (1930-12-30) 30 December 1930 (age 93)
Alma materBeijing Medical College (BMedSc) [note 2]
Known forDiscovering artemisinin and dihydroartemisinin
AwardsLasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award (2011)
Warren Alpert Foundation Prize (2015)
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2015)
Highest Science and Technology Award, China (2016)
Medal of the Republic, China (2019)
Scientific career
FieldsMedicinal chemistry
Chinese herbology
Antimalarial medication
Clinical research
InstitutionsChina Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine[1][note 1]
Academic advisorsLou Zhicen
Chinese name
Chinese屠呦呦

Tu Youyou (Chinese: 屠呦呦; pinyin: Tú Yōuyōu; born 30 December 1930) is a Chinese malariologist and pharmaceutical chemist. She discovered artemisinin (also known as qīnghāosù, 青蒿素) and dihydroartemisinin, used to treat malaria, a breakthrough in twentieth-century tropical medicine, saving millions of lives in South China, Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America.

For her work, Tu received the 2011 Lasker Award in clinical medicine and the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura. Tu is the first Chinese Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine and the first female citizen of the People's Republic of China to receive a Nobel Prize in any category. She is also the first Chinese person to receive the Lasker Award. Tu was born, educated and carried out her research exclusively in China.[3]

  1. ^ "Youyou Tu – Facts". Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  2. ^ "Introduction". Peking University Health Science Center. 27 October 2010. Archived from the original on 10 August 2014. Retrieved 10 October 2015.
  3. ^ Miller, Louis H.; Su, Xinzhuan (2011). "Artemisinin: Discovery from the Chinese herbal garden". Cell. 146 (6): 855–858. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2011.08.024. PMC 3414217. PMID 21907397.


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