中国女科学家屠呦呦获诺贝尔生理学或医学奖

Jan Andersson from the Nobel Prize Committee in Physiology or Medicine explained why Tu Youyou won the Nobel Prize.

"Youyou Tu got half of this year's prize for her discovery of Artemisinin, and she did that from an herb, so she was the one who identified that Artemisia annua herb, the Chinese Artemisia branch contains a compound that has the best effect against malaria parasite.”

Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease caused by single-cell parasites which invade red blood cells.
It causes fever and in severe cases brain damage and death.

It claims more than 450 thousand lives every year, predominantly among children.
The other two scientists who won the other half of the Nobel Prize in Medicine are William C. Campbell and Satoshi Omura.

"Together they collectively discovered a new compound in treatment of roundworm parasites infections. They infect a third of human population and generate chronicle warm infection, there are two kinds of infection, riverblindness infection, and Elephantia infection, 25 million riverblindness infection and 120 million elephantia infections."

A statement released by the Nobel Assembly said that "the discoveries by the three has transformed the treatment of parasitic diseases. The global impact of their discoveries and the resulting benefit to mankind are immeasurable."

Tu Youyou was born in 1930 in China.

She graduated from the Pharmacy Department at Beijing Medical University in 1955.

She is now Chief Professor at the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

William Campbell was also born in 1930 in Ireland.

In 1957, he obtained a PhD from the University of Wisconsin USA and is currently a research Fellow Emeritus at Drew University, Madison, New Jersey, United States.

Satoshi Omura was born in 1935 in Japan.

He has been Professor Emeritus at Kitasato University.

The trio will receive their prize on December 10 in Stockholm.

For CRI, this is Chen Xuefei reporting from Stockholm.