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| NOBEL PRIZE |
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| Year : 2016 | Volume
: 21
| Issue : 1 | Page : 75-76 |
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Nobel Prize 2015
Om Prakash Gupta
Editor in Chief, Journal of Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences
| Date of Web Publication | 4-Mar-2016 |
Correspondence Address:
Om Prakash Gupta
Editor in Chief, Journal of Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/0971-9903.178127
How to cite this article:
Gupta OP. Nobel Prize 2015
. J Mahatma Gandhi Inst Med Sci 2016;21:75-6 |
The Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine 2015 was divided, one-half jointly to William C. Campbell and Satoshi Omura "For their discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites," [1] and the other half to Tu Youyou "for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria."
| Tu Youyou | |  |
[2]
Tu Youyou also a recipient of Lasker-DeBakey, Clinical Medical Research Award (2011), was born on December 30, 1930, in Ningbo Zhejiang, China, graduated in 1955 at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Beijing Medical College. She was trained later in traditional Chinese medicine. Joining the academy after graduation, she reached the highest post of researcher. She is currently Chief Scientist at the China Academy of Chinese Medical sciences.
Tu started her work on malaria in 1969, as head of the "Project 523" research group at her institute. By 1971, she discovered the extract from "Qinghao" (Artemisia annua, or wormwood) out of 380 extracts of 200 herbs which inhibited the growth of Plasmodium in animals. In 1972, she purified the substance qinghaosu or artemisinin and synthesized dihydroartemisinin a compound useful in treating the cases of malaria and saving millions of life. For this discovery, she received the Noble Prize 2015, sharing with the other two scientists.
| Satoshi Omura | | |
[3]
A Japanese microbiologist Satoshi Omura was born in 1935 in the Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. He received his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Tokyo in 1968 and then Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1970. He has been a researcher and then Professor at Kitasato University Japan. His main field of work was focused on a group of bacteria, Streptomyces, and discovered a number of pharmaceutical products with antibacterial activities. He isolated the new strains of Streptomyces from soil samples, culturing them in his laboratory. From 1985 onward, he received several awards for his research work. He and his team isolated a strain of Streptomyces avermitilis from which an antiparasitic compound "Avermectin" was produced. Campbell later working further on the microorganism and developed a derivative drug of avermectin, i.e., ivermectin which is being used to treat lymphatic filariasis, and the river blindness caused by one of the helminth in tropical regions, onchocerciasis.
| William C Campbell | | |
[4]
Campbell was born in Ramelton, County Donegal, Ireland in 1930. He graduated in Zoology in 1952 from Trinity College, Dublin and completed his Ph.D. in 1957 from University of Wisconsin-Madison. For over 30 years, he has been associated with Merck Institute of Therapeutic Research as a scientist. His field of interest was parasitology. He discovered a fungicide, thiabendazole to treat potato blight. The same drug is also used to treat human trichinosis. He studied Omura's (fellow scientist) cultures and from Streptomyces avermitilis, he derived macrocyclic lactone which was modified to ivermectin the drug to treat onchocerciasis - aka river blindness and lymphatic filariasis and other parasitic diseases which have helped millions of sufferers. This brought him the Noble Prize sharing with Satoshi Omura.
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