(FILE)

Tu Youyou, an outstanding Chinese chemist, was given the 2011 Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award for her contribution to the discovery of artemisinin, a drug used to treat malaria. The award is the highest obtained by a Chinese biomedical researcher.

Tu, 81, is now a researcher at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences in Beijing. She started work in the 1960s when the Chinese Government began a project to find a new malaria drug that could replace the standard treatment, chloroquine, which was losing effectiveness as malaria parasites developed resistance.

Tu discovered a way to extract the active substance from the sweet wormwood, or Artemisia annua, which has been used by the Chinese for centuries to treat fever, removed the toxic portion, and demonstrated that it could wipe out malaria-causing parasites in animals. Artemisinin, the drug produced as a result of the research, was later shown to cure malaria in humans.

"It is clear that Tu's insight and vision have saved millions of lives, particularly in the developing world, and continues to yield long-term medical benefits in the ongoing fight against this deadly disease," said the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, which presents the award.