刊读 | Tu Youyou wins UNESCO's prize for life sciences

File photo of Chinese scientist Tu Youyou at the Nobel Prize ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall on December 10, 2015. /VCG Photo

Tu Youyou is a Chinese pharmaceutical chemist and malariologist. She discovered artemisinin and dihydroartemisinin, used to treat malaria, a breakthrough in twentieth-century tropical medicine, saving millions of lives in South China, Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America.

UNESCO has named Professor Cato Laurencin (USA), Professor Kevin McGuigan (Ireland) and Professor Youyou Tu (China) as the three winners of the 2019 UNESCO-Equatorial Guinea International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences. This is the fifth edition of the Prize, which rewards outstanding scientific research projects in the life sciences.

Tu Youyou, the Chinese scientist who won the 2015 Nobel Prize of Physiology or Medicine, has just won another major award – the UNESCO-Equatorial Guinea International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences. 

Tu, along with American doctor Cato Laurencin and Professor Kevin McGuigan from Ireland, jointly won the fifth edition of the award, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced on Tuesday.  

The three winners, rewarded for their "outstanding scientific research projects in the life sciences that have led to an improvement in the quality of human life," will share a prize worth 350,000 U.S. dollars. 

The Chinese Nobel laureate "is recognized for her research into parasitic diseases. She discovered an entirely new anti-malarial treatment, artemisinin, which made possible the treatment of thousands of patients in China in the 1980s," UNESCO said in a press release.

American doctor Cato Laurencin has won for his fundamental contribution to "regenerative engineering applied to the development of biomaterials for clinical use; stem cell science, nanotechnology and drug delivery systems," according to the Paris-based UN body. 

And the Irish laureate is recognized "for his cutting-edge research on the development and implementation of solar water disinfection technology (SODIS) to combat waterborne diseases among people without access to safe drinking water in Africa and Asia." 

The winners will also receive a diploma, as well as a statuette by the Equatorial Guinean artist Leandro Mbomio Nsue. 

The award ceremony will take place at the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during the African Union Heads of State Summit in February 2020. 

(Source: CGTN)

Chinese pharmaceutical chemist Tu Youyou has been inducted into the roll of award winners of the latest UNESCO-Equatorial Guinea International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences announced by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, in yet another major global prize Tu has received after winning the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015, becoming the first Chinese woman to ever win the award.

UNESCO, headquartered in Paris, France, made public the list consisting of the three award-winners for the fifth prize yesterday. These are Tu, Cato T. Laurencin from the US and Kevin McGuigan from Ireland.

Prof. Tu is recognized for her research into parasitic diseases. She discovered an entirely new anti-malaria treatment, artemisinin -- derived from the sweet wormwood plant -- which enabled the treatment of thousands of patients in China in the 1980s. Since the turn of the century, the World Health Organization has been recommending artemisinin-based combination therapies as the first-line treatment for the mosquito-borne malaise.

These combination treatments have saved 6.2 million lives, reducing associated mortality in Africa by 66 percent, and by 71 percent among children under five years of age, according to the statement on UNESCO's official site.

The UNESCO-Equatorial Guinea prize, which was set up in 2015, aims to reward outstanding individuals or institutions that have led to an improvement in the quality of human life through research into the life sciences. Sponsored by the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, this honor has three winners every year, with a overall grant of USD350, 000, which is equally shared by awardees.

Profs. Laurencin and McGuigan, the other two inductees, were distinguished for their respective contributions to regenerative engineering and solar water disinfection technology. The pair and Tu will attend the award ceremony at the main administrative center of the African Union in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa in February.