Xinhua Insight: Chinese Nobel laureate says prize "not that important"

Tu Youyou, the first Chinese national to win a Nobel prize in science, said winning the prize or not is "not that important," but her findings need to be made best use of.

"To win the Nobel prize or not is not that important for me, but this honor attests that our traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an inspiring resource which requires further research," Tu, 84, said during an interview with Xinhua.

Born in 1930, Tu won the 2015 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for her work on treating malaria. She shares the prize with Irish-born William Campbell and Japan's Satoshi Omura, the Nobel Assembly at Sweden's Karolinska Institute announced Monday.

Tu discovered Artemisinin, a drug that has significantly reduced mortality rates for malaria patients.

A GREAT CONTRIBUTION

During the interview, Tu described her hopes for anti-malaria therapy, saying there were many health benefits of TCM research waiting to be discovered.

Describing the prize as a great honor, she was quick to give credit to her research team. "The prize is a credit for Chinese scientists' collective efforts and shows the attention paid to TCM research by the international scientific community," she said. "It is a proud moment for China and Chinese scientists."

"Artemisinin is a gift for the people of the world people from traditional Chinese medicine. It is of great significance for the fight against malaria and other infectious diseases, and for protecting the health of the world's people," Tu said Monday evening, when health officials paid her a visit to extend their congratulations.

In a congratulatory letter, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said that "Tu's prize symbolizes China's prosperity and progress in scientific and technological fields, is a great contribution by traditional Chinese medicine to health, and displays China's growing strengths and rising international standing."

Tu recalled the painstaking discovery of the therapy as she and her team extracted the effective elements from sweet wormwood after more than 190 attempts. To ensure the safety of the new drug, Tu and her fellow researchers volunteered to test it on themselves.

Tu married Li Tingzhao in 1963. The couple have two daughters.

THE TCM DEBATE

In an interview with Xinhua after the announcement, Juleen R. Zierath, chairman of the Nobel Committee, said that Tu's "inspiration from traditional Chinese medicine" was important.

"But what was really critical was that Tu identified the active agent in that plant extract," said Zierath, adding that "there was a lot of modern chemistry and bio-chemistry attached to this to bring forward this new drug."

"It cannot be said that there are no treasures in TCM, but they are not ready-made," Tu said, stressing that TCM requires industrious research.

Rao Yi, president of the school of life sciences at Peking University, said Chinese medicine remains useful today, with much unexploited potential.

Li Ying, a retired expert with the Chinese Academy of Sciences the Shanghai institute of materia medica, noted that Artemisinin research was conducted using methods entirely different from the traditional. "In fact, Artemisinin was discovered and extracted in a procedure strictly following modern pharmacological and chemical standards."

Chen Zufeng with the school of pharmacy at Fudan University in Shanghai, said the discovery was the result of scientific research into herbal medicine, a path for the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine. He said there is currently insufficient incorporation of traditional methods in medical science, and vice versa.

Some experts, however, warned that copying the success of Artemisinin might prove impossible or even misleading in many cases, saying that it is not always technically possible to extract a single effective substance from herbs, nor is it financially affordable for most Chinese drug manufacturers.

MUCH TO DO

Bu Pengbin, a former TCM student at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, said Tu often visited their labs and encouraged students to carry on her research.

"I believe that the prize will be good for TCM research and hearten researchers," Bu said.

Tu said that with the honor comes a greater sense of responsibility. "I think I still have much to do."

"The discovery of Artemisinin was no easy job, and we should continue our efforts." Endi