Tu has been named joint recipient of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of Artemisinin which has revolutionized therapy for patients suffering from the devastating parasitic disease.
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Despite her newly found fame, Dr Tu continues to be modest and was keen to link her achievements with the value of traditional Chinese medicine.
During the interview, Tu described her hopes for anti-malaria therapy, saying there were many health benefits of TCM research waiting to be discovered.
Set up in 1967 and named for the date it was created, the project aimed to find a cure for malaria in North Vietnam, which was at war with South Vietnam and the United States and was losing its soldiers to the disease.
China’s Tu Youyou were given another much less the prize for obtaining artemisinin, a medication that has definitely reduced malaria losses and also has be the vital part to fight the mosquito-borne illness.
In May 1967, Chairman Mao initiated a secret drug discovery project, known as Project 523, to search for a malaria cure. When the team moved to the sweet wormwood, they had to figure out what part of the plant and which stage of its growth might provide an active compound.
Guinea’s Deputy Coordinator for the National Anti-Malaria Program Dr. Timothee Guilavogui on Monday expressed confidence that “the development of traditional Chinese medicine will contribute to helping developing countries to resolve their public health problems”.
“It occurred to me that high temperatures could have destroyed the (anti-malaria) activity”, said Tu, who switched to using ether at lower temperatures to extract the active ingredient. In line with this, Tu discovered that isolating the artemisinin from the plant was best performed at low temperatures.
This 1950s photo shows Tu Youyou, right, a pharmacologist with the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences in Beijing, working with Prof. Dr Tu’s discovery has helped save millions of lives in Asia and Africa and many believe that recognition of her contribution to global healthcare is long overdue.
She appeared light-hearted on Wednesday about having been snubbed for membership by the prestigious Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In a congratulatory letter, Premier Li Keqiang said that “Tu’s prize symbolizes China’s prosperity and progress in scientific and technological fields, is a great contribution by traditional Chinese medicine to health, and displays China’s growing strengths and rising worldwide standing”.
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“I don’t want to talk about it anymore”.
