Who are the winners of the Nobel Prize in Medicine 2015 Master of Japanese calligraphy, a lover of parasites and modest Chinese woman – Gazeta Wyborcza

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volume, mrol, "New Scientist"

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
           
           
             

             

                  
             
                  
 
                  
                 
                    

Satoshi Omura, Tu Youyou, and William C. Campbell, winners of the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2015.

                  
                  
                  

                  
             

             
         
     
   
   
   
 
 
 
 

Satoshi Omura, William C. Campbell and Tu Youyou - Nobel Prize is the crowning achievement of their career and research work. All three are already in the ninth decade of his life.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                          
 

                 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

         

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Satoshi Omura. The scientist, who likes to poke through the soil

W Over his long career he discovered 13 new genera and 42 new species of microorganisms that live in the soil. He isolated them more than 470 new organic compounds. As many as 26 of them are now widely used in medicine, veterinary medicine and agriculture.

He was born in 1935. In 1963. He received a master's degree from the University of Life Sciences in Tokyo. When I was 33 years old, he did a PhD in pharmaceutics at the University of Tokyo. One doctorate him was not enough, so two years later took another - this time in chemistry for his alma mater.

Since 1965. Satoshi Omura is associated with the Kitasato Institute in Tokyo. In 1990. She became his boss. It is now a retired professor and coordinator of the program to develop drugs from natural products. It is also the winner of the Japanese and international awards, as well as a member of many academies of science.

In the scientific work consuming it ... pawing the ground. In the soil looking for microorganisms - bacteria and fungi - which could be used in the service of medicine. Thanks to his research a person suffering from elevated levels of bad cholesterol are some of statins and cancer patients anticancer drugs.

Omura also discovered bacteria Streptomyces avermectinius (with another species of this genus of bacteria the team Selman Waksman isolated the famous streptomycin - for what in 1952. received the Nobel Prize), so William C. Campbell could create ivermectin, and years later the two retired scientists can now enjoy shared the Nobel Prize.

In his spare time research prof. Omura golfing, cross-country skiing, practicing the art of calligraphy and takes care of his private art museum that he founded in a family Nirasaki.

William C. Campbell. Irish professional nematode

To He proved that one of organic compounds produced by the bacteria Streptomyces avermectinius , he discovered Omura, promising hope in the fight against dangerous parasites.

William C. Campbell was born in 1930 . Ramelton, Ireland. Having graduated in 1952. Trinity College in Dublin, he moved to the United States. In 1957. He did a doctorate in biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Then he joined the international pharmaceutical company Merck, where he worked until 1990. It was there that he met with Satoshi Omura and discovered by him microbe.

bacteria Streptomyces avermectinius Campbell isolated the compound Chemical - avermectin - which has proved effective in the fight against parasitic nematodes threatening livestock and household. Avermectin purified and refined scholar called ivermectin. In 1981. For the first time it was used for the treatment of parasitic diseases in animals. Currently in people treated her river blindness and elephantiasis.

In 1990. Campbell joined the private Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. Today is the retired professor.

The scholar since 2002. Is also a member of the US National Academy of Sciences. "I'm trying to infect young scientists about my passion parasites" - writes on the website of the Academy. "Although I am capricious in their devotion to each species of parasites, is my real hobby providing constant delight to me is Trichnella, the parasite responsible for trichinosis."

Tu Youyou. "The greater the reward is for me to see so many cured"

Tu Youyou has conducted research in the 60s and 70s during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. They were not good times for researchers. They were considered class enemies and sent to the countryside for "re-education" (that happened to her husband Youyou). However, during the Vietnam War, China really need scientists. Their ally, North Vietnam, was losing more soldiers from malaria than the wounds on the front.

The main drug to treat malaria was chloroquine then, but protozoa that cause infection quickly at her uodparniały. The Chinese began secret military project, whose goal was to find a better agent. A similar program is also waged in the United States. - When I first started working in China and the US studied more than 240 thousand. chemicals - says Youyou. No result. The parasite has proven to be extremely resistant.

In the absence of new synthetic drugs China turned to traditional medicine. The Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Beijing to find the right plants designated Tu Youyou, who studied both Western medicine and traditional Chinese. She was sent to the island of Hainan, especially troubled by malaria. - I saw there many children in the last stages of the disease, which quickly died - told the researcher a few years ago, the weekly "New Scientist".

Tu Youyou and her team studied more than 2 thousand. recipes of traditional Chinese medicine from the library of the Academy. They prepared 380 herbal extracts and tested them in mice. Effective turned out to be only extracts from sweet wormwood ( Artemisia Anna ), exchanged in traditional recipes as a treatment for "recurring fever". This is one of the symptoms of malaria.

Unfortunately, the laboratory Artemisia lost its power. Youyou studied dating back 1600 years before the recipe and realized the error. In the original, centuries-old mugwort had to soak in water, and scientists mugwort cooked. High temperatures have to destroy acting against zarodźcom relationship. The researcher uses some solvent other than water. This time the extract turned out to be one hundred percent effective. - I uleczyliśmy drug-resistant malaria, we were very excited - he says. But the extract worked on the mouse. It was not certain whether it will be safe for humans. Youyou decided to test it on himself. - As head had to do - he explains.

When it became clear that the drug has no side effects, Youyou began clinical trials on infected. The results were sensational. Symptoms resolved within 30 hours, plasmodia disappeared from their blood. In this way, the Artemisinin - still an effective cure for malaria.

Research Youyou not published until the end of the Cultural Revolution. Her work long remained anonymous. In 2005,. American researcher Professor malaria. Louis Miller of the National Institutes of Health in Rockville, Maryland said in Shanghai China specialists, who discovered a cure for malaria. No one knew. When Miller along with a colleague from the institute, Xinzhuan Su, already examined the declassified records from the military draft, he came to the conclusion that arguably falls laurel Here Youyou.

In 2011. Received for this Award. Albert Lasker, which is the highest US award for research contributing to advances in medicine. The scientist thanked, but said: - The greater the reward is for me to see so many cured.

Tu Youyou is extremely modest. About this study, he says: - It is my duty as a scientist. The debt that turn for the education they gave me my country.

This is the first citizen of the Republic of China, which received the scientific Nobel Prize (Peace received in 2010. Lu Xiaobo).

         

         

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