Chinese scientist wins US award for malaria drug
September 15th, 2011 - 4:54 pm ICT by IANSBeijing, Sep 15 (IANS) A Chinese scientist has won a prestigious award in the US for her discovery of a new drug therapy for treatment of malaria.
Pharmacologist Tu Youyou, 81, will be presented the Lasker Award by the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation Sep 23 in New York, Xinhua reported citing a foundation statement.
Tu, a scientist at the Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences in Beijing, was praised for her “drug therapy for malaria that has saved millions of lives across the globe, especially in the developing world”, the statement said.
In 1969, Tu was appointed head of a government project that aimed to eradicate malaria.
She detected 380 extracts from 2,000 recipes, and obtained a pure substance called “Qinghaosu”, which became known as artemisinin in 1972.
An artemisinin-based drug combination is now the standard for malaria treatment. The World Health Organisation lists artemisinin in its catalogue of essential medicines.
The Lasker Awards are given annually to people who have made major advances in the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure and prevention of human diseases since 1945.
Lasker awardees are also dubbed “America’s Nobels” for their knack of gaining future recognition by the Nobel committee. Since 1945, 80 Lasker laureates have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize.
- Now, a cheap and organic drug treatment for malaria - Aug 17, 2010
- Resistance to malaria drug rings alarm bells - Apr 08, 2012
- Malaria parasite developing drug resistance in Cambodia - Jul 30, 2009
- Novel anti-malarial drug candidate discovered - Sep 03, 2010
- Drug-resistant Malaria spreads along Thai-Myanmar border - Apr 06, 2012
- Natural compounds could pave way for novel anti-malaria drugs - Mar 15, 2011
- New gene study paves way for more anti-malaria treatments - Oct 11, 2010
- World Health Organization issues guidelines for malaria treatment - Mar 10, 2010
- New strategies reducing malaria deaths in Odisha (April 25 is World Malaria Day) - Apr 25, 2012
- High dose of oxygen boosts natural cancer treatment - Apr 05, 2011
- Cabinet approves malaria control project for north eastern states - Apr 28, 2011
- 850,000 people die every year from malaria: Unicef - Apr 24, 2010
- Boosting availability of potent anti-malaria drug - Jan 18, 2012
- Canadian researchers announce breakthrough in malaria treatment - Mar 19, 2011
- New genetic map to speed up plant breeding of medicinal herb - Jan 15, 2010
Tags: albert and mary lasker foundation, artemisinin, chinese scientist, diagnosis treatment, drug combination, foundation statement, government project, human diseases, lasker award, lasker awards, malaria drug, malaria treatment, mary lasker foundation, nobel committee, nobel prize, nobels, qinghaosu, treatment of malaria, world health organisation, youyou