Tu Lasker Award 2011

Professor Tu Youyou - First bioscientist from China to win the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award in 2011
Professor Tu Youyou	The 2011 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award has been awarded to Professor Tu Youyou of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, for her discovery of artemisinin, a drug important for the treatment of malaria. The introduction of artemisinin and its derivatives and in combinations with other medicinations have been demonstrated to be effective in treating malaria and saving millions of lives all over the World every year. It is interesting to note that Professor Tu's achievements were originated from a covert operation, designated as Project 523, named after the date, May 23, 1967, it was established in China. The mission of the Project 523 was to identify effective drugs from traditional Chinese medicinal herbs to combat drug-resistant strains of the malaria parasites, which were killing thousands of soldiers in the Vietnam War. Tu was appointed the Head of the project and had been instrumental in identifying extracts from the Qinghao (sweet wormwood) plant to be effective to kill the malaria parasites. Through her research, Professor Tu and her team were able to identify artemisinin as the effective ingradient, solve its chemical structure, and generate potent derivatives with significant therapeutic effects on malaria. Please read more about Professor Tu's award description from the Lasker Foundation with the following link. http://www.laskerfoundation.org/awards/2011_c_description.htm
It has been recognized that many of the Recipients for the Lasker Awards would eventually win the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. Professor Tu joins the rank of three other distinguished Chinese Americans who were also recognized for their respective achivements in medical sciences. They include: 1) the 1962 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award to Professor Choh Hao Li of the Hormone Research Laboratory at the University of California, San Francisco, for his contributions to understanding the chemistry of pituitary hormones, including the identification and isolation of six homrones of the anterior pituitary gland; 2) the 1972 Albert Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award to Min Chiu Li (together with Roy Hertz) for his contributions to the successful chemotherapeutic treatment of gestational choriocarcinoma; and 3) the 1991 Albert Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award to Yuet Wai Kan, of the University of California, San Francisco, for his pivotal contributions to the development of human genetics, most importantly in the area of the hemoglobinopathies using recombinant DNA technology. With the addition of Professor Tu to this group of elite Albert Lasker Award Recipients, the odds for a Chinese bioscientist to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in the immediate future have now increased a notch!
Professor Choh Hao Li		Professor Min Chiu Li	Professor Yuet Wai Kan
Copyright © 2011. Society of Chinese Bioscientists in America. All rights reserved.

Professor Tu Youyou - First bioscientist from China

to win the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award in 2011

Professor Tu Youyou

The 2011 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award has been awarded to Professor Tu Youyou of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, for her discovery of artemisinin, a drug important for the treatment of malaria. The introduction of artemisinin and its derivatives and in combinations with other medicinations have been demonstrated to be effective in treating malaria and saving millions of lives all over the World every year.

It is interesting to note that Professor Tu's achievements were originated from a covert operation, designated as Project 523, named after the date, May 23, 1967, it was established in China. The mission of the Project 523 was to identify effective drugs from traditional Chinese medicinal herbs to combat drug-resistant strains of the malaria parasites, which were killing thousands of soldiers in the Vietnam War. Tu was appointed the Head of the project and had been instrumental in identifying extracts from the Qinghao (sweet wormwood) plant to be effective to kill the malaria parasites. Through her research, Professor Tu and her team were able to identify artemisinin as the effective ingradient, solve its chemical structure, and generate potent derivatives with significant therapeutic effects on malaria. Please read more about Professor Tu's award description from the Lasker Foundation with the following link.

http://www.laskerfoundation.org/awards/2011_c_description.htm

It has been recognized that many of the Recipients for the Lasker Awards would eventually win the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. Professor Tu joins the rank of three other distinguished Chinese Americans who were also recognized for their respective achivements in medical sciences. They include: 1) the 1962 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award to Professor Choh Hao Li of the Hormone Research Laboratory at the University of California, San Francisco, for his contributions to understanding the chemistry of pituitary hormones, including the identification and isolation of six homrones of the anterior pituitary gland; 2) the 1972 Albert Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award to Min Chiu Li (together with Roy Hertz) for his contributions to the successful chemotherapeutic treatment of gestational choriocarcinoma; and 3) the 1991 Albert Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award to Yuet Wai Kan, of the University of California, San Francisco, for his pivotal contributions to the development of human genetics, most importantly in the area of the hemoglobinopathies using recombinant DNA technology. With the addition of Professor Tu to this group of elite Albert Lasker Award Recipients, the odds for a Chinese bioscientist to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in the immediate future have now increased a notch!

Professor Choh Hao Li

Professor Min Chiu Li

Professor Yuet Wai Kan