Posted on 10/05/2015 11:01:22 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Three scientists whose discoveries have driven scourges of the developing world to the brink of eradication have been awarded the Nobel Prize for physiology and medicine.
The Nobel Committee announced Monday it had awarded the 2015 prize to 85-year old William C. Campbell, 80-year-old Satoshi Omura and 85-year-old Youyou Tu of China for their discoveries leading to the development of antimicrobial treatments for such tropical diseases as river blindness, lymphatic filariasis (also known as elephantiasis) and malaria.
Campbell, an Irish biochemist and parasitologist at Drew University in New Jersey, and Omura, a bioorganic chemist at Kitasato University in Japan and Wesleyan University in Connecticut, will share half the prize for their discovery of the compounds avermectin/ivermectin.
In Japan, Omura explored the antibacterial properties of agents produced by the naturally occurring Streptomyces microorganism, which lives in common soil. Campbell, an expert in parasite biology working in New Jersey, acquired Omuras cultures and conducted extensive tests of them in farm and domestic animals.
The committee awarded the other half of the prize to Tu, whose work for the Chinese government resulted in the discovery and development of Artemisinin, a treatment for malaria.
Ivermectins global impact on human health is often compared to that of penicillin. It is used around the world to treat diseases caused by roundworm parasites, including river blindness and elephantiasis. It continues to be administered to some 300 million people who use the compound annually.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Can we use their therapies against the crimalien parasites?
Save the Guinea Worm from man made extinction!
5.56mm
so the Nobel Prize committee can get it right
RE: so the Nobel Prize committee can get it right
As long as they stick to science, they’re OK.
The moment they start mucking around with things that are subjective like Literature and “Peace” ( note the quotes ), you get people like Yaser Arafat, Al Gore, Barack Obama and Rigoberta Menchu.
All those are Peace Prize winners. The Lit prize winners have been mostly OK.
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