Tu Youyou

Tu Youyou (Chinese: 屠呦呦; born 30 December 1930), is a Chinese medical scientist, pharmaceutical chemist, and educator. She won the 2011 Lasker Award in Clinical Medicine for discovering artemisinin (also known as Qinghaosu) and dihydroartemisinin, used to treat malaria, which saved millions of lives. Tu was the first native Chinese to win Lasker award in history who was educated in China and whose work was carried out in China.^[1] The discovery of artemisinin and its treatment of malaria is regarded as a significant breakthrough of tropical medicine in 20th Century and health improvement for people of tropical developing countries in South Asia, Africa, and South America.

Background

Tu carried on her work in the 1960s and 70s during China's Cultural Revolution, when scientists were unpopular. But China's ally, North Vietnam, was at war with South Vietnam and the U.S. Malaria was a major cause of death, and evolving resistance to chloroquine. Malaria was also a major cause of death in China's Hainan province. Mao Zedong set up a secret drug discovery project, named Project 523 after its starting date, 23 May 1967.^[2]

Scientists worldwide had screened over 240,000 compounds without success. Tu, a member of the Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing, was appointed to study Chinese herbs. She screened over 2,000 traditional Chinese recipes and made 380 herbal extracts, which were tested on mice.^[2]

One compound was effective, sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua), which was used for "intermittent fevers," a hallmark of malaria. Its preparation was described in a 1,600-year old text, in a recipe titled, "Emergency Prescriptions Kept Up One's Sleeve." At first, it didn't work, because they extracted it with boiling water, which damaged the active ingredient. They used lower-temperature ether extraction instead, and it was completely effective in mice and monkeys.^[2]

Tu volunteered to be the first human 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.^[2]

"It is scientists' responsibility to continue fighting for the healthcare of all humans," said Tu. "What I have done is what I should have done in return for the education provided by my country."^[2]

She was grateful for the Lasker award, but said, "I feel more reward when I see so many patients cured."^[2]

Biography

Tu was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China on 30 December 1930.^[3] In 1951, she matriculated at Peking University School of Medicine (In 1952, the Medical School became independent as Beijing Medical College, later renamed Beijing Medical University in 1985. On 3 April 2000, Beijing Medical University was merged with Peking University and is now known as Peking University Health Science Center).^[4] 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. She was promoted to tenured researcher in 1980 (as graduate tutor), and in 2001 promoted to academic advisor for doctorate candidates. Currently she is the Chief Scientist in the Academy.^[5]

Before 2011, Tu had been obscure for decades, and is described as "almost completely forgotten by people" by Wen Wei Po in Hong Kong.^[6]

A 2007 interview shows Tu's living conditions are very poor.^[3] Her office is in an old apartment building in Dongcheng District, Beijing, prone to heating shortages, and has only two electrical household appliances - a telephone and a refrigerator, which she uses to store herb samples.^[3]

Tu is regarded as the Professor of Three None's - no postgraduate degree, no study or research experience abroad, and not a member of any Chinese national academies, i.e. Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering.^[7] Up until 1979, there were no postgraduate degree programs in China, and China was largely isolated from the rest of the world. Tu is now regarded as a representative figure of the first generation Chinese medical workers since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949.^[8]

Family

Tu's husband is a metallurgist who was her classmate at Xiaoshi Middle School. He was a senior researcher at the China Central Iron and Steel Research Institute (CISRI), Beijing. The two have two daughters, the older is working for the University of Cambridge in England, the younger is living in Beijing.

Research

Schistosomiasis

During her early years, Tu studied Lobelia chinensis, a traditional Chinese medicine, for curing Schistosomiasis, which was widely spread in the first half of the 20th century in Southern China.

Malaria

Tu started her malaria research in China when the Cultural Revolution was in progress. In early 1969, Tu was appointed head of the project, named Project 523 research group at her institute. She collected 2000 candidate recipes, ancient texts, and folk remedies for possible leads for her research. By 1971, her team had made 380 extracts from 200 herbs, and discovered the extracts from Qinghao (Artemisia annua, sweet wormwood) looked particularly promising in dramatically inhibiting Plasmodium growth in animals. Tu found the way to extract it and her innovations boosted potency and slashed toxicity of this extract.^[9] In 1972, she and her colleagues obtained the pure substance and named it Qinghaosu (青蒿素) or artemisinin now commonly called in the west,^[9][10][11] which has saved millions of lives, especially in the developing world.^[12] Tu also studied the chemical structure and pharmacology of artemisinin.^[9]

Awards

• 1978, National Science Congress Prize, P.R.China^[13]
• 1987, Albert Einstein World Science Prize, World Culture Council^[13]
• 1992, (One of the) Ten Science and Technology Achievements in China, State Science Commission, P.R.China^[13]
• 1997, (One of the) Ten Great Public Health Achievements in New China, P.R.China^[13]
• September 2011, GlaxoSmithKline Outstanding Achievement Award in Life Science^[14]
• September 2011, Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research^[15]
• November 2011, Outstanding Contribution Award, China Academy of Chinese Medical Research^[16]
• February, 2012, (One of the Ten) National Outstanding Females, P.R.China^[17]

References