[E220]Nobel Prize: Three to split award in medicine for discov……

Nobel Prize: Three to split award in medicine for discoveries of tropical disease drugs

Three scientists — from the U.S., Japan and China — won the Nobel Prize in medicine today for discovering drugs to fight malaria[疟疾] and other tropical diseases[热带病] that affect hundreds of millions of people every year. Youyou Tu — the first Chinese medicine laureate — will share the 8 million Swedish kronor[克朗-瑞典货币单位] (about $960,000) award with Japanese microbiologist[微生物学家] Satoshi Omura and William C. Campbell, an Irish-born U.S. scientist.

The consequences in terms of improved human health and reduced suffering are immeasurable.

The Nobel Prize committee

Tu was celebrated for discovering artemisinin[青蒿素], a drug that is now the primary treatment against malaria, saving millions of lives worldwide. Inspired by Chinese traditional medicine, she made her discovery while working on a malaria project for the Chinese military. The other two winners, Omura and Campbell, discovered another drug, avermectin[阿维菌素], whose derivatives[派生物] have helped fight diseases caused by parasitic worms[寄生蠕虫] that affect millions of people in Africa and Asia. The Nobel committee said the winners, who are all in their 80s and made their breakthroughs in the 1970s and ‘80s, had given humankind powerful tools to combat[战斗；搏斗] debilitating diseases[使人衰弱的疾病].

I have learned so much from microorganisms[微生物，微生虫] and I have depended on them, so I would much rather give the prize to microorganisms.

Satoshi Omura