Photo courtesy of NobelPrize.org
Eighty-four year old Youyou Tu was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her discovery of the anti-malarial drug Artemisinin. This discovery is badass for a multitude of reasons:
1. She is the first Chinese woman to win this award. And this isn’t her first award! She’s been winning since 1980.
2. She is trained and educated in both Traditional Chinese Medicine and pharmacology and is NOW the Chief Professor at the Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. This means she’s not only a scientist and a researcher but a Chinese medicine practitioner as well.
3. She spent decades combing through thousand year old texts (ones still used in acupuncture schools today) and testing hundreds of herbal formulas before discovering that Qing Hao – Artemisia Annua or Wormwood- holds the chemical compound that 100% kills the malaria parasite.
4. Her father named her Youyou after the Chinese saying “The deer bleat ‘youyou’ while they are eating the wild hao”. Her dad literally named her after the herb. Awesome coincidence.
5. A panel of 50 scientists voted that this researcher’s herbal discovery was worth a Nobel Prize.
6. She reminds me of my old supervisor, Dr. Wei. A tough cookie with a plethora of knowledge.
7. This discovery has saved millions of lives.
So if anyone ever says that Chinese herbal medicine isn’t legit like pharmaceuticals, I dare you- say that to Youyou’s face.
