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]

Tu was bestowed the Medal of the Republic, the highest honorary medal of the People's Republic of China, in September 2019.^[4]

Early life

[edit]

Tu was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang, China, on 30 December 1930.^[5]

My [first] name, Youyou, was given by my father, who adapted it from the sentence 呦呦鹿鳴, 食野之蒿^[6] translated as "Deer bleat youyou while eating wild Hao" in the Chinese Book of Odes. How this links my whole life with qinghao will probably remain an interesting coincidence forever.

— Tu Youyou, when interviewed in 2011 after being awarded the 2011 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award^[7]

She attended Xiaoshi Middle School for junior high school and the first year of high school, before transferring to Ningbo Middle School in 1948. A tuberculosis infection interrupted her high-school education, but inspired her to go into medical research.^[8] From 1951 to 1955, she attended Peking University Medical School / Beijing Medical College.^{[note 2]} In 1955, Youyou Tu graduated from Beijing Medical University School of Pharmacy and continued her research on Chinese herbal medicine in the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. 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.

After graduation, Tu worked at the Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (now the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medical Sciences^{[note 1]}) in Beijing.

Research career

[edit]

Tu carried on her work in the 1960s and 70s, including during China's Cultural Revolution.

Schistosomiasis

[edit]

During her early years in research, Tu studied Lobelia chinensis, a traditional Chinese medicine believed to be useful for treating schistosomiasis,^[9] caused by trematodes which infect the urinary tract or the intestines, which was widespread in the first half of the 20th century in South China.

Malaria

[edit]

In 1967, during the Vietnam War, President Ho Chi Minh of North Vietnam asked Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai for help in developing a malaria treatment for his soldiers trooping down the Ho Chi Minh trail, where a majority came down with a form of malaria which is resistant to chloroquine. Because malaria was also a major cause of death in China's southern provinces, especially Guangdong and Guangxi, Zhou Enlai convinced Mao Zedong to set up a secret drug discovery project named Project 523 after its starting date, 23 May 1967.^[10]

In early 1969, Tu was appointed head of the Project 523 research group at her institute. Tu was initially sent to Hainan, where she studied patients who had been infected with the disease.^[11]

Scientists worldwide had screened over 240,000 compounds without success.^[12] In 1969, Tu, then 39 years old, had an idea of screening Chinese herbs. She first investigated the Chinese medical classics in history, visiting practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine all over the country on her own. She gathered her findings in a notebook called A Collection of Single Practical Prescriptions for Anti-Malaria. Her notebook summarized 640 prescriptions. By 1971, her team had screened over 2,000 traditional Chinese recipes and made 380 herbal extracts, from some 200 herbs, which were tested on mice.^[10]

One compound was effective, sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua), which was used for "intermittent fevers," a hallmark of malaria. As Tu also presented at the project seminar, its preparation was described in a recipe from a 1,600-year-old traditional Chinese herbal medicine text titled Emergency Prescriptions Kept Up One's Sleeve. At first, it was ineffective because they extracted it with traditional boiling water. Tu discovered that a low-temperature extraction process could be used to isolate an effective antimalarial substance from the plant;^[13] Tu says she was influenced by the source, written in 340 by Ge Hong, which states that this herb should be steeped in cold water.^[14] This book instructed the reader to immerse a handful of qinghao in water, wring out the juice, and drink it all.^[3] Since hot water damages the active ingredient in the plant, she proposed a method using low temperature ether to extract the effective compound instead. Animal tests showed it was completely effective in mice and monkeys.^[10]

In 1972, she and her colleagues obtained the pure substance and named it qinghaosu (青蒿素), or artemisinin in English.^[13]^[15]^[16] This substance has now saved millions of lives, especially in the developing world.^[17] Tu also studied the chemical structure and pharmacology of artemisinin.^[13] Tu's group first determined the chemical structure of artemisinin. In 1973, Tu was attempting to confirm the carbonyl group in the artemisinin molecule when she accidentally synthesized dihydroartemisinin.

Tu volunteered to be the first human test subject. "As head of this research group, I had the responsibility," she said. It was safe, so she conducted successful clinical trials with human patients. Her work was published anonymously in 1977.^[10] In 1981, she presented the findings related to artemisinin at a meeting with the World Health Organization.^[18]^[19]

For her work on malaria, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine on 5 October 2015.

Later career

[edit]

Tu Youyou was promoted to Researcher (研究员, the highest researcher rank in mainland China equivalent to the academic rank of a full professor) in 1980, shortly after the beginning of the Chinese economic reform in 1978. In 2001, she was promoted to academic advisor for doctoral candidates. As of 2023, she is the chief scientist of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences.^[20]

As of 2007, her office is in an old apartment building in Dongcheng District, Beijing.^[5]

Before 2011, Tu Youyou had been obscure for decades, and is described as "almost completely forgotten by people".^[21]

Tu is regarded as the "Three-Without Scientist"^[22] – no postgraduate degree (there was no postgraduate education then in China), no study or research experience abroad, and not a member of either of the Chinese national academies, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering.^[23] Tu is now regarded as a representative figure of the first generation of Chinese medical workers since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949.^[24]

Awards

[edit]

1978, National Science Congress Prize, P.R. China^[25]
1979, National Inventor's Prize, P.R. China
1992, (One of the) Ten Science and Technology Achievements in China, State Science Commission, P.R. China^[25]
1997, (Two of the) Ten Great Public Health Achievements in New China, P.R. China^[25]
2009, Cyrus Tang Traditional Chinese Medicine Award winner
September 2011, GlaxoSmithKline Outstanding Achievement Award in Life Science^[26]
September 2011, Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award^[27]
November 2011, Outstanding Contribution Award, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences^[28]
February 2012, (One of the Ten) National Outstanding Women, P.R. China (March 8th Red Banner Pacesetter)^[29]
June 2015, Warren Alpert Foundation Prize (co-recipient)^[30]
October 2015, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2015 (co-recipient) for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against malaria, awarded one half of this prize; and William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura jointly awarded another half for their discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infection with roundworm parasites.^[31]
2016, Highest Science and Technology Award, China^[32]^[33]
2016 and 2019, Asian Scientist 100, Asian Scientist^[34]
2019, Medal of the Republic, P.R. China^[35]
2025, International Member of USA National Academy of Science^[36]

See also

[edit]

Drug discovery
Malaria, quinine and tropical medicine
Antimalarial medications resulted from Project 523 (during and after the Cultural Revolution)
- Artemisinin (major contributors: Tu Youyou et al., 1972)
- Dihydroartemisinin (Tu Youyou et al., 1973)
- Pyronaridine (1973)
- Artemether (Zhou Weishan (周维善), 1975)
- Lumefantrine (1976)
- Artesunate (Liu Xu (刘旭), 1977^[37])
- Artemether/lumefantrine (Zhou Yiqing, 1985)
- Naphthoquinone (1986)
History of science and technology in the People's Republic of China
- First artificial synthesis of (crystallized bovine) insulin (Niu Jingyi et al., 1965)
- Discovery of using arsenic trioxide and tretinoin to treat leukemia (Zhang Tingdong, Wang Zhenyi, Chen Zhu & Chen Saijuan)
- Dr Tang Feifan, discoverer of Chlamydia trachomatis, was expected to receive a Nobel Prize but died from political persecution in Beijing, 1958
- Dr Wu Lien-teh, first Chinese nominated to receive a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (nominated in 1935)
List of Chinese Nobel laureates and List of female Nobel laureates
List of Chinese discoveries and List of Chinese inventions
Chinese herbology and Traditional Chinese medicine
Timeline of women in science

Notes

[edit]

^ ^a ^b The Beijing-based Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (中医研究院) was established in 1955 and renamed the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (中国中医研究院) in 1985 and then the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medical Sciences (中国中医科学院) in 2005. Tu Youyou has been working at the Academy since 1955. The Academy was subsidiary to the Ministry of Health and is now directly under the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
^ ^a ^b Peking University Medical School (北京大学医学院) became the independent Beijing Medical College (北京医学院) in 1952. Tu Youyou attended it between 1951 and 1955. Later in 1985 it was renamed Beijing Medical University (北京医科大学), and was returned to Peking University as Peking University Health Science Center (北京大学医学部) since 2005.^[2]

References

[edit]

^ "Youyou Tu – Facts". Retrieved 12 October 2015.
^ "Introduction". Peking University Health Science Center. 27 October 2010. Archived from the original on 10 August 2014. Retrieved 10 October 2015.
^ ^a ^b 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.
^ "全国人民代表大会常务委员会关于授予国家勋章和国家荣誉称号的决定_滚动新闻_中国政府网". www.gov.cn. Retrieved 10 October 2024.
^ ^a ^b "Magic Drug Saved Half Billion People" (in Chinese). Hong Kong: Phoenix Television News. 16 March 2007. Retrieved 13 September 2011.
^ 《詩經・小雅・鹿鳴》("Deer Bleating" in the Minor Odes of the Kingdom section of the Classic of Poetry)
^ Neill, Ushma S. (3 October 2011) [12 September 2011]. "From branch to bedside: Youyou Tu is awarded the 2011 Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for discovering artemisinin as a treatment for malaria". Journal of Clinical Investigation. 121 (10). American Society for Clinical Investigation: 3768–3773. doi:10.1172/JCI60887. PMC 3195493. PMID 22059236.
^ "Youyou Tu – Biographical". www.nobelprize.org. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
^ Tu, Youyou. "Tu Youyou Biographical". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "The modest woman who beat malaria for China", by Phil McKenna, New Scientist, 15 November 2011
^ Tom Phillips (6 October 2015). "Tu Youyou: how Mao's challenge to malaria pioneer led to Nobel prize". The Guardian.
^ "The Nobel Prize | Women who changed science | Tu Youyou". www.nobelprize.org. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c Strauss, Evelyn (September 2011). "Award Description". Lasker–DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award. New York: Lasker Foundation.
^ "Lasker Award Rekindles Debate Over Artemisinin's Discovery". News.sciencemag.org. 29 September 2011. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
^ Brown, Geoff (2010). "Special Issue Artemisinin (Qinghaosu): Commemorative Issue in Honor of Professor Youyou Tu on the Occasion of her 80th Anniversary". Molecules. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
^ Tu, Youyou. "Acceptance remarks by Tu Youyou". Lasker–DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award. New York: Lasker Foundation. Equipped with a sound knowledge in both traditional Chinese medicine and modern pharmaceutical sciences, my team inherited and developed the essence of traditional Chinese medicine using modern science and technology and eventually, we successfully accomplished the discovery and development of qinghaosu from qinghao (Artemisia annua L).
^ Weise, Elizabeth (12 September 2011). "'America's Nobel' awarded to Chinese scientist". USA Today. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
^ Guo, Jeff (6 October 2015). "How a secret Chinese military drug based on an ancient herb won the Nobel Prize". The Washington Post.
^ Tu, Youyou (11 October 2011). "The discovery of artemisinin (qinghaosu) and gifts from Chinese medicine". Nature Medicine. 17 (10). Nature: 1217–1220. doi:10.1038/nm.2471. PMID 21989013. S2CID 10021463.
^ "Official Biography" (in Chinese). China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. Archived from the original on 6 September 2011. Retrieved 20 February 2023.
^ 屠呦呦膺世界級醫學大獎 (in Chinese). Hong Kong: Wen Wei Po. Retrieved 13 September 2011.
^ Zou, Luxiao (6 October 2015). "Chinese Scientist Wins Nobel Prize in Medicine; China Hails the Laureate with Reflection". People's Daily.
^ 屠呦呦获拉斯克奖评论认为离诺奖只一步之遥 (in Chinese). Sohu News. 13 September 2011. Retrieved 13 September 2011.
^ 屠呦呦：新中国第一代药学家研发青蒿素 (in Chinese). Sohu News. 29 September 2009. Retrieved 13 September 2011.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Tu Youyou 屠呦呦". China Vitae. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
^ "Chen Zhili Congratulates Lasker Award Winner Tu Youyou". Women of China. 22 September 2011. Archived from the original on 6 October 2015. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
^ "Tu Youyou". Lasker Foundation. 12 September 2011. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
^ "Tu is awarded Outstanding Contribution Award by CACMR" (in Chinese). Xinhua News Agency. 15 November 2011. Archived from the original on 31 December 2011. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
^ 吴菊萍屠呦呦获授三八红旗手标兵 (in Chinese). Sina.com News. 28 February 2012. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
^ "Alpert Prize Recognizes Malaria Breakthroughs". Warren Alpert Foundation. 4 June 2015. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
^ "Nobel Prize announcement" (PDF). NobelPrize.org. Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
^ "Nobel Laureate Tu Youyou Becomes First Female to Win China's Top Science Award". Caixin Global. 10 January 2017. Retrieved 20 January 2017.
^ "屠呦呦、赵忠贤获2016年度国家最高科学技术奖习近平颁奖". guancha.cn (in Chinese). 9 January 2017. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
^ "The Asian Scientist 100". Asian Scientist. Retrieved 13 March 2025.
^ "袁隆平、屠呦呦等被授予"共和国勋章"(全名单)". sina.com.cn (in Chinese). 17 September 2019.
^ "National Academy of Sciences Elects Members and International Members - NAS".
^ "国家知识产权局专利检索及分析". www.pss-system.gov.cn. Retrieved 14 February 2019.

Further reading

[edit]

Rao, Y.; Zhang, D.; Li, R. (2016). Tu Youyou and the Discovery of Artemisinin: 2015 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co. ISBN 978-7-5046-6996-4.
Tu, Y. (2017). From Artemisia annua L. to Artemisinins: The Discovery and Development of Artemisinins and Antimalarial Agents. Academic Press. ISBN 9780128116562.
Pattison, Darcy (2022). FEVER: How Tu YouYou Adapted Traditional Chinese Medicine to Find a Cure for Malaria. Little Rock, AR: Mims House. ISBN 9781629441955.

External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tu Youyou.

Tu Youyou on Nobelprize.org

v t e Laureates of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
1901–1925	1901: Emil Behring 1902: Ronald Ross 1903: Niels Finsen 1904: Ivan Pavlov 1905: Robert Koch 1906: Camillo Golgi / Santiago Ramón y Cajal 1907: Alphonse Laveran 1908: Élie Metchnikoff / Paul Ehrlich 1909: Emil Kocher 1910: Albrecht Kossel 1911: Allvar Gullstrand 1912: Alexis Carrel 1913: Charles Richet 1914: Róbert Bárány 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919: Jules Bordet 1920: August Krogh 1921 1922: Archibald Hill / Otto Meyerhof 1923: Frederick Banting / John Macleod 1924: Willem Einthoven 1925
1926–1950	1926: Johannes Fibiger 1927: Julius Wagner-Jauregg 1928: Charles Nicolle 1929: Christiaan Eijkman / Frederick Gowland Hopkins 1930: Karl Landsteiner 1931: Otto Warburg 1932: Charles Scott Sherrington / Edgar Adrian 1933: Thomas Morgan 1934: George Whipple / George Minot / William Murphy 1935: Hans Spemann 1936: Henry Dale / Otto Loewi 1937: Albert Szent-Györgyi 1938: Corneille Heymans 1939: Gerhard Domagk 1940 1941 1942 1943: Henrik Dam / Edward Doisy 1944: Joseph Erlanger / Herbert Gasser 1945: Alexander Fleming / Ernst Chain / Howard Florey 1946: Hermann Muller 1947: Carl Cori / Gerty Cori / Bernardo Houssay 1948: Paul Müller 1949: Walter Hess / António Egas Moniz 1950: Edward Kendall / Tadeusz Reichstein / Philip Hench
1951–1975	1951: Max Theiler 1952: Selman Waksman 1953: Hans Krebs / Fritz Lipmann 1954: John Enders / Thomas Weller / Frederick Robbins 1955: Hugo Theorell 1956: André Cournand / Werner Forssmann / Dickinson W. Richards 1957: Daniel Bovet 1958: George Beadle / Edward Tatum / Joshua Lederberg 1959: Severo Ochoa / Arthur Kornberg 1960: Frank Burnet / Peter Medawar 1961: Georg von Békésy 1962: Francis Crick / James Watson / Maurice Wilkins 1963: John Eccles / Alan Hodgkin / Andrew Huxley 1964: Konrad Bloch / Feodor Lynen 1965: François Jacob / André Lwoff / Jacques Monod 1966: Francis Rous / Charles B. Huggins 1967: Ragnar Granit / Haldan Hartline / George Wald 1968: Robert W. Holley / Har Khorana / Marshall Nirenberg 1969: Max Delbrück / Alfred Hershey / Salvador Luria 1970: Bernard Katz / Ulf von Euler / Julius Axelrod 1971: Earl Sutherland Jr. 1972: Gerald Edelman / Rodney Porter 1973: Karl von Frisch / Konrad Lorenz / Nikolaas Tinbergen 1974: Albert Claude / Christian de Duve / George Palade 1975: David Baltimore / Renato Dulbecco / Howard Temin
1976–2000	1976: Baruch Blumberg / Daniel Gajdusek 1977: Roger Guillemin / Andrew Schally / Rosalyn Yalow 1978: Werner Arber / Daniel Nathans / Hamilton O. Smith 1979: Allan Cormack / Godfrey Hounsfield 1980: Baruj Benacerraf / Jean Dausset / George Snell 1981: Roger Sperry / David H. Hubel / Torsten Wiesel 1982: Sune Bergström / Bengt I. Samuelsson / John Vane 1983: Barbara McClintock 1984: Niels Jerne / Georges Köhler / César Milstein 1985: Michael Brown / Joseph L. Goldstein 1986: Stanley Cohen / Rita Levi-Montalcini 1987: Susumu Tonegawa 1988: James W. Black / Gertrude B. Elion / George H. Hitchings 1989: J. Michael Bishop / Harold E. Varmus 1990: Joseph Murray / E. Donnall Thomas 1991: Erwin Neher / Bert Sakmann 1992: Edmond Fischer / Edwin G. Krebs 1993: Richard J. Roberts / Phillip Sharp 1994: Alfred G. Gilman / Martin Rodbell 1995: Edward B. Lewis / Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard / Eric F. Wieschaus 1996: Peter C. Doherty / Rolf M. Zinkernagel 1997: Stanley B. Prusiner 1998: Robert F. Furchgott / Louis Ignarro / Ferid Murad 1999: Günter Blobel 2000: Arvid Carlsson / Paul Greengard / Eric Kandel
2001–present	2001: Leland H. Hartwell / Tim Hunt / Paul Nurse 2002: Sydney Brenner / H. Robert Horvitz / John E. Sulston 2003: Paul Lauterbur / Peter Mansfield 2004: Richard Axel / Linda B. Buck 2005: Barry Marshall / Robin Warren 2006: Andrew Fire / Craig Mello 2007: Mario Capecchi / Martin Evans / Oliver Smithies 2008: Harald zur Hausen / Luc Montagnier / Françoise Barré-Sinoussi 2009: Elizabeth Blackburn / Carol W. Greider / Jack W. Szostak 2010: Robert G. Edwards 2011: Bruce Beutler / Jules A. Hoffmann / Ralph M. Steinman (posthumously) 2012: John Gurdon / Shinya Yamanaka 2013: James Rothman / Randy Schekman / Thomas C. Südhof 2014: John O'Keefe / May-Britt Moser / Edvard Moser 2015: William C. Campbell / Satoshi Ōmura / Tu Youyou 2016: Yoshinori Ohsumi 2017: Jeffrey C. Hall / Michael Rosbash / Michael W. Young 2018: James P. Allison / Tasuku Honjo 2019: Gregg L. Semenza / Peter J. Ratcliffe / William Kaelin Jr. 2020: Harvey J. Alter / Michael Houghton / Charles M. Rice 2021: David Julius / Ardem Patapoutian 2022: Svante Pääbo 2023: Katalin Karikó / Drew Weissman 2024: Victor Ambros / Gary Ruvkun

v t e 2015 Nobel Prize laureates
Chemistry	Tomas Lindahl (Sweden/United Kingdom) Paul L. Modrich (United States) Aziz Sancar (Turkey/United States)
Literature (2015)	Svetlana Alexievich (Belarus)
Peace (2015)	Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet (Tunisia)
Physics	Takaaki Kajita (Japan) Arthur B. McDonald (Canada)
Physiology or Medicine	William C. Campbell (Ireland/United States) Satoshi Ōmura (Japan) Tu Youyou (China)
Economic Sciences	Angus Deaton (United Kingdom/United States)
Nobel Prize recipients 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

v t e Han Chinese Nobel laureates
Chemistry	Yuan T. Lee (1986) Roger Y. Tsien (2008)
Physics	Chen-Ning Yang (1957) Tsung-Dao Lee (1957) Samuel C. C. Ting (1976) Steven Chu (1997) Daniel C. Tsui (1998) Charles K. Kao (2009)
Peace	Liu Xiaobo (2010)
Literature	Gao Xingjian (2000) Mo Yan (2012)
Physiology or Medicine	Tu Youyou (2015)

Highest Science and Technology Award laureates

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