Tu Youyou

Tu Youyou is a Chinese scientist who found a cure for malaria. She was born in Ningbo, China, in 1930. She discovered artemisinin, a medicine made from a plant. Her work has saved millions of lives around the world.

Early Life

Tu grew up in eastern China. She got sick with tuberculosis as a teenager, which made her want to study medicine. She studied pharmacy at Peking University. She learned about both modern and traditional Chinese medicine.

Tu Youyou with other Nobel Prize winners in medicine in 2015.
Tu Youyou with other Nobel Prize winners in medicine in 2015. (Bengt Nyman from Vaxholm, Sweden / Wikimedia Commons)

Big Discoveries

In the 1970s, Tu led a secret project to find a malaria cure. She read ancient Chinese medical texts for clues. She found that sweet wormwood, a plant used for centuries, could fight malaria. She won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2015.

Fun Facts

  • Tu tested the medicine on herself first to make sure it was safe.
  • She read over 2,000 ancient Chinese recipes to find the cure.
  • She was the first Chinese woman to win a Nobel Prize.

Did You Know?

Tu Youyou's discovery came from a 1,600-year-old Chinese medical text. The ancient recipe described how to use sweet wormwood to treat fevers. Her medicine now saves hundreds of thousands of lives every year.