采访视频参见：http://www.laskerfoundation.org/awards/2011_c_interview_youyou.htm
屠呦呦等科研人员根据公元300年东晋时期的中国古典医学典籍中记载的方法，成功从青蒿中提炼出了一种治疗疟疾的高效药物--青蒿素，并且确定了其分子结构。这种药物拯救了全世界数以百万计的人的生命。
令当代中国尴尬的似乎是，这项世界级成就与PRC建国以来的其他科学成就（两弹一星、核潜艇、杂交水稻、人工合成牛胰岛素等等）一样，都是在毛泽东时代完成。而改革开放以来，虽然在经济上取得了巨大的进步，在科技创新方面的伟大建树几乎为零。
一名诺贝尔经济学奖获得者在分析中国经济时指出：PRC建立时落后于印度，中国改革开放之前（而不是之后）的成就造成了中国大大领先印度的现状，中国改革开放的成就是建立在之前成就的基础上。
The 2011 Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award honors a scientist who discovered artemisinin and its utility for treating malaria. Tu Youyou (China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing) developed a therapy that has saved millions of lives across the globe, especially in the developing world. An artemisinin-based drug combination is now the standard regimen for malaria, and the World Health Organization (WHO) lists artemisinin and related agents in its catalog of "Essential Medicines." Each year, several hundred million people contract malaria. Without treatment, many more of them would die than do now. Tu led a team that transformed an ancient Chinese healing method into the most powerful antimalarial medicine currently available.
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The covert operation, named Project 523 for the day it was announced—May 23, 1967—set out to battle chloroquine-resistant malaria. The clandestine nature of the enterprise and the political climate created a situation in which few scientific papers concerning the project were published for many years, the earliest ones were not accessible to the international community, and many details about the endeavor are still shrouded in mystery. In early 1969, Tu was appointed head of the Project 523 research group at her institute, where practitioners of traditional medicine worked side by side with modern chemists, pharmacologists, and other scientists. In keeping with Mao Zedong's urgings to "explore and further improve" the "great treasure house" of traditional Chinese medicine, Tu combed ancient texts and folk remedies for possible leads. She collected 2000 candidate recipes, which she then winnowed. By 1971, her team had made 380 extracts from 200 herbs. The researchers then assessed whether these substances could clear Plasmodia from the bloodstream of mice infected with the parasite.
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