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NEWS doi: 10.12032/TMR20190922136

Tu Youyou：A scientist moving forward in controversy

Editor Group of Traditional Medicine Research

The 13th National People's Congress Standing In 2011, Youyou was awarded by the Lasker Committee was held in Beijing on Sept. 17, 2019. Foundation. The is often seen as a President of Xi Jinping signed a presidential precursor to the . This event reignited a decree to award individuals, national medals and controversy over whether one person should be honorary titles. Tu Youyou, the winner of the 2015 recognized for developing the drug. Some Chinese Nobel Prize in or medicine, was awarded scientists even co-authored letters to the Nobel the Medal of the Republic [1]. Committee, stating that "We would rather no-one have As the winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in physiology this Nobel Prize, rather than Tu Youyou have it alone or medicine, Tu Youyou and her team, discovered that [8, 9]." and could be used to It is noted that Tu Youyou turned to ancient texts of treat [2]. Although Tu Youyou won the Nobel Chinese medicine named Zhouhou Beiji Fang and Prize in 2015, she didn’t have a Ph.D. degree. In 2017, discovered clues to identify and extract the active she did not been admitted to the Chinese Academy of component of the Chinese herbal medicine Qinghao Sciences again [3]. ( carvifolia Buch.-Ham. ex Roxb. Hort. As early as Oct. 9, 2015, The New York Times Beng.). She then delivered her Nobel Lecture titled reported, “Q. and A.: Tu Youyou on Being Awarded the “Discovery of Artemisinin - A Gift from Traditional Nobel Prize”: “Q: Are you disappointed not to have Chinese Medicine to the World” on Dec. 17, 2015 at been admitted to the Chinese Academy of Sciences? A: Aula Medica, Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm [10]. I applied many times, because people told me I should. This made traditional medical practitioners, especially I did receive a few awards for the discovery. At the Chinese medicine practitioners very excited as they National Science Conference in 1978, my team was hoped it would bring some positive publicity to given an award. As the team leader, I accepted on usefulness of traditional medicine. However, the Prize behalf of the team. The Minister of Public Health motivation on official website is still just "for her personally recommended me for academy membership. discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria However, many factors must come into play. It’s [2]." complicated [4].” On May 30, 2019, the latest research results of the Usually, the Nobel Prize is awarded to individuals Tu Youyou team were published on The New England only [5]. Research of has been carried out Journal of Medicine titled A Temporizing Solution to since the early 1970s, by hundreds of scientists all “Artemisinin Resistance" [11]. In addition, the together under the “whole nation" system. For example, application for the "Clinical trial of dihydroartemisinin Xu Liu of Guilin Pharmaceutical Company designed tablet in the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus and synthesized dihydroartemisinin C10-monoesters of and discoid systemic lupus erythematosus" submitted diacids [6]. “ Tu was the first to show that this by the Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, China component, later called Artemisinin, was highly Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, where the Tu effective against the malaria parasite, both in infected Youyou team is located, has been approved. Kunming animals and humans.”the Nobel Committee said [7]. Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is the responsible party [12]. Submit a manuscript: https://www.tmrjournals.com/tmr TMR | November 2019 | vol. 4 | no. 6 | 288 NEWS doi: 10.12032/TMR20190922136 Citation: tu/lecture/ Editor Group of Traditional Medicine Research. Tu 11. Wang J, Xu C, Liao F L, et al. A Temporizing Youyou ： A scientist moving forward in controversy. Solution to “Artemisinin Resistance”. N Engl J Traditional Medicine Research 2019, 4 (6): 288-289. Med, 2019, 380: 2087-2089. 12. NIH [Internet]. Exploratory Study of DHA in References Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Patients. [cited 2019 September 20]. Available from: 1. Xinhuanet [Internet]. China's top legislature https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03396393 adopts state honors decision. [cited 2019 September 20]. Available from: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-09/17/c_ 138398754.htm 2. The Nobel Prize [Internet]. Tu Youyou. [cited 2019 September 20]. Available from: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2015/ tu/facts/ 3. Chinese Academy of Sciences [Internet]. Announcement of the list of academicians and elected academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2017. [cited 2019 September 20]. Available from: http://www.cas.cn/yw/201711/t20171128_462478 9.shtml (Chinese) 4. Perlez J [Internet]. Q. and A.: Tu Youyou on Being Awarded the Nobel Prize. [cited 2019 September 20]. Available from: https://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/09/ tu-youyou-nobel-prize-malaria/?_r=1&mtrref=un defined&assetType=REGIWALL 5. The Nobel Prize [Internet]. Nobel Prize facts. [cited 2019 September 20]. Available from: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/facts/nobel-priz e-facts/ 6. Guo Z. Artemisinin anti-malarial drugs in China. Acta Pharm Sin B. 2016, 6:115-124. 7. Altman LK [Internet]. Nobel Prize in Medicine Awarded to 3 Scientists for Parasite-Fighting Therapies. [cited 2019 September 20]. Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/06/science/will iam-c-campbell-satoshi-omura-youyou-tu-nobel-p rize-physiology-medicine.html 8. Hao C [Internet]. Lasker Award Rekindles Debate Over Artemisinin's Discovery. [cited 2019 September 20]. Available from: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2011/09/lasker -award-rekindles-debate-over-artemisinins-discov ery 9. People Net [Internet]. Who is jealous of Tu Youyou winning the Nobel Prize? [cited 2019 September 20]. Available from: http://opinion.people.com.cn/n/2015/1007/c15930 1-27667175.html (Chinese) 10. The Nobel Prize [Internet]. Discovery of Artemisinin - A Gift from Traditional Chinese Medicine to the World. [cited 2019 September 20]. Available from: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2015/ Submit a manuscript: https://www.tmrjournals.com/tmr TMR | November 2019 | vol. 4 | no. 6 | 289