![Tu was given the prestigious Lasker DeBakey clinical medical research award in 2011.](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/c6191a3f452a1587bb6bfed263ec6cc39202b942/0_774_1638_982/master/1638.jpg?w=300&q=85&auto=format&sharp=10&s=4ace36ef38f48d0a386ac085c2141561)
An obscure Chinese woman researcher finds a cure for Malaria from an obscure herb,
sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua) – or in Chinese qinghao – being used to treat malaria.
Amid all the madness Tu Youyou, then a researcher at the Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Beijing, was handed a daunting mission: to find a drug that would cure malaria.
“The work was the top priority so I was certainly willing to sacrifice my personal life,” the famously understated scientist later recalled.
On Monday, nearly half a century after her life-changing quest began, Tu was awarded the Nobel prize in medicine for her role in creating a drug that helped slash malaria mortality rates in Africa and Asia, saving millions of lives.
Yet for all her achievements, Tu, who is now 84, remains a little known figure, even in her native China where she had drifted into obscurity despite the magnitude of her discovery.
http://whistlestopphotohunt.blogspot.co.nz/
1 comment:
Such good news for so many around the world. Glad it was a woman!!
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