Vaccines and Therapeutics in the Developing World: Malaria and Beyond

2015 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize Symposium

In honor of Dr. Ruth Nussenzweig, Dr. Victor Nussenzweig, and Professor Tu Youyou for their pioneering discoveries in chemistry and parasitology, and personal commitments to translate these into effective chemotherapeutic and vaccine-based approaches to control malaria - their collective work will impact millions of lives globally particularly in the developing countries.

Ruth S. Nussenzweig

Ruth S. Nussenzweig | 2015 Recipient

For their pioneering discoveries in chemistry and parasitology, and personal commitments to translate these into effective chemotherapeutic and vaccine-based approaches to control malaria - their collective work will impact millions of lives globally particularly in the developing countries.

Ruth Nussenzweig is Research Professor, Department of Pathology and Professor Emerita of Microbiology and Pathology, Department of Microbiology
Pathology, NYU School of Medicine. Ruth was born in Vienna, Austria. She got her MD degree in 1953 and PhD degree in 1968 at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. In 1964 she came to the USA and progressed from assistant professor at the NYU School of Medicine.at (1972) to CV Starr Professor and Chair of the Department of Medical and Molecular Parasitology (2002).  Among her many honors, Ruth is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, USA (2007);  member of the National Academy of Sciences (2013); was President of the Harvey Society from 1993-1994;  was awarded the LePrice medal from the American Society of Tropical Medicine; and was the recipient of the prestigious Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize (1985).

Victor Nussenzweig

Victor Nussenzweig | 2015 Recipient

For their pioneering discoveries in chemistry and parasitology, and personal commitments to translate these into effective chemotherapeutic and vaccine-based approaches to control malaria - their collective work will impact millions of lives globally particularly in the developing countries.

Victor Nussenzweig obtained his  MD in 1953 and PhD in 1957 from the the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. In 1964 he came to the USA and progressed from assistant professor at the NYU School of Medicine (1965) to Hermann M. Biggs Professor of Pathology (1987). Among his many honors, he received the Life Time Achievement Award in malaria research from the BioMalPar European Organization; was elected fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology (2003); elected member of the American American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2002); was the recipient of Bristol Myers Squib "Freedom to Discover" Award for distinguished achievement in Infectious Diseases (2006).

Tu Youyou

Tu Youyou | 2015 Recipient

For their pioneering discoveries in chemistry and parasitology, and personal commitments to translate these into effective chemotherapeutic and vaccine-based approaches to control malaria - their collective work will impact millions of lives globally particularly in the developing countries.

Tu Youyou is currently a Professor and Director of Qinghaosu Research Center at Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences.

Tu joined the Institute of Chinese Materia Medica (ICMM), China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (CATCM) (renamed China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, CACMS in 2005) in 1955 after graduation from School of Pharmacy, Beijing Medical College (1951 – 1955).  She late attended a two and half year course on the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) (1959-1962) - an in depth training specifically designed and offered to the graduates with Western medical background.  Over more than forty years, Tu has been working in the institute as a research assistant, assistant professor, associate professor, professor and director of the Chemistry Department.  She also holds a chief professor position of CACMS as well as members of Phytochemistry Society of China Pharmaceutical Association; Chinese Society of Traditional and Natural Drugs; Council member and Founding Member of Chinese Association of Invention; Executive Committee of All-China Women's Federation (1988-93) and a committee member of Beijing Committee of Natural Science Foundation (1995-97).

Tu’s research on anti-malaria drugs started in 1969 when she was appointed to head the Project 523 research group at the institute.  Project 523 was a secret military program initiated by the Chinese leadership in 1967 in supporting Vietnam government for searching medicines to treat anti chloroquine-resistant malaria.  Tremendous efforts had been made both in US and China but no effective drugs were found by the time Tu accepted the task.

Tu started with collection of over 2000 candidate recipes from which she and her team later screened over hundreds of herbal extracts.  Only one of the extracts from Qinghao (Artemisia annua L.) showed some promising effect, which however was not consistent and reproducible.  Tu further reviewed all available tradition Chinese medicine literatures and noticed a paragraph “Take a handful of Qinghao, soak in two liters of water, strain the liquid, and drink” in the Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies (340 CE) authored by Ge Hong.  She realized that the heating applied during extraction might have damaged the active components in the herb.  With this in mind, Tu re-designed low temperature extraction approaches using the solvents with low boiling points.  On the 4th October 1971, a neutral ether extract numbered 191 was found 100% effective in clearing Plasmodia in the mice and monkey test models.  To prove safety of the Qinghao extract and expedite the project, Tu and other two colleagues volunteered in the toxicity study on themselves in July 1972.  Between August and October 1972, Tu and her team carried out the first clinical trial in southern China in which all thirty-one patients treated with the Qinghao extract recovered from the disease.  Subsequent to the first clinical trial, Tu and her colleagues further purified the extract and obtained a pure active crystalline in November 1972.  The compound was late named Qinghaosu (Artemisinin).

Over last several decades, Tu has continued her effort in fighting against malaria.  She and her colleagues developed artemisinin into a medicine and late the team further developed dihydro-artemisinin, another anti-malaria drug, which is ten fold more effective than artemisinin itself.

Tu’s achievement in the discovery of artemisinin and its application in the malaria treatment as well as her unanimous contribution to the healthcare of human being have been well recognized nationally and internationally.  She was honored the Lasker ~ Debakey Clinical Medical Research Award in 2011.  Tu also received numerous awards nationally which include “Award for Progress in Anti-malarial Research Achieved by Project 523 Scientific Team” honored by China National Congress of Science and Technology (1978); “National Scientific Discovery Award” for Anti-malaria Drug-Qinghaosu by the China Ministry of Science and Technology (1979); “Invention Award” (as the first inventor) by China National Congress for Awards in Science and Technology (1982); “Award of Young and Middle-aged Experts with Outstanding Contribution” by the Chinese Government (1984); “The Top Honorary Award” by China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (1992); “The Top Ten National Achievements for Progress in Science and Technology” by China National Committee of Science and Technology (1992); “First-Class Award of National Achievements in Science and Technology” by China National Award Committee for Advances in Science and Technology (1992); “National Model” by China State Council (1995); “Award for Outstanding Achievement in Traditional Chinese Medicine” by Guangzhou Zhongjing Award Foundation for Traditional Chinese Medicine (1995); “Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award” by Qiu Shi Science and Technologies Foundation of Hong Kong (1996); “Top Ten Health Achievements in New China” by China Ministry of Health (1997); “Female Inventor of the New Century” by China National Bureau of Intellectual Property (2002); “Golden Medal of the 14th National Invention Exhibition” by China National Bureau of Intellectual Property (2003); “Award for Development of Chinese Materia Medica” by Cyrus Chung Ying Tang Foundation, (2009).  She also received “Prince Mahidol Award” by Thailand Prince Mahidol Award Foundation (2003),  “GlaxoSmithKline Award for Outstanding Achievements in Life Science” (2011), Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award(2011), and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine(2015).

Symposium Program

Each year the recipient(s) of the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize are recognized at a scientific symposium hosted by Harvard Medical School.

Opening Remarks

Jeffrey S. Flier, MD

Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Harvard University

Co-moderators

Dyann F. Wirth, PhD

Richard Pearson Strong Professor of Infectious Disease Chair, Immunology and Infectious Diseases Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

John Mekalanos, PhD

Adele Lehman Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics Chair, Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology Harvard Medical School

Remarks and Reflections

Victor Nussenzweig, MD, PhD

Research Professor of Pathology, Professor Emeritus of Pathology NYU Langone School of Medicine

Invited Speakers

Stuart L. Schreiber, PhD

Director, Center for the Science of Therapeutics, Broad Institute Morris Loeb Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University

Talk title: Novel mechanism of action (nMoA) compounds in therapeutics discovery

Elizabeth Winzeler, PhD

Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Pharmacology and Drug Discovery University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine Director of Translational Research, UC Health Sciences Center for Immunology, Infection and Inflammation

Talk title: Using chemical genomics to find new targets for malaria elimination

Bruce Walker, MD

Director, Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard

Talk title: Toward an HIV Vaccine: learning from patients

Sarah Fortune, MD

Melvin J. and Geraldine L. Glimcher Associate Professor Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Talk title: Single cell approaches to identify cellular subpopulations driving disease progression in TB

Stephen Elledge, PhD

Gregor Mendel Professor of Genetics and Medicine Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Talk title: Comprehensive serological profiling of human populations using a synthetic human virome

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It is truly an honor to be included amongst the extremely distinguished list of winners of the Alpert Award, which since 1987 has recognized some of the most exciting scientific discoveries that impact medicine. To me personally, it is exciting to see the relatively new field of neurotechnology recognized. The brain implements our thoughts and feelings and makes us who we are. And brain disorders affect over a billion people around the world. These mysteries and challenges require new technologies to make the brain understandable and repairable. It is a great honor that our technology of optogenetics is being thus recognized.
- Edward Boyden

Edward Boyden | 2019 Recipient

Edward Boyden is the Y. Eva Tan Professor of Neurotechnology, Professor of Biological Engineering and Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT’s Media Lab and McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and Co-Director of the MIT Center for Neurobiological Engineering. In 2018, he was selected to be an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.  While a PhD student at Stanford, he discovered that the molecular mechanisms used to store a memory are determined by the content to be learned. In parallel, he co-invented optogenetic control of neurons. In particular, he and co-winner Karl Deisseroth brainstormed about how microbial opsins could be used to mediate optical control of neural activity while both were students. Together, the two of them collaborated to demonstrate the firstoptical control of neural activity using microbial opsins, with Karl, then a postdoc, and Ed, then a graduate student, performing the gene transfection and the optical stimulation respectively.

His lab at MIT pioneered optogenetic neural silencing using microbial opsins, and further developed the optogenetic toolset towards the neuroscience-driven goals of powerful, noninvasive, high-speed, multiplexed, and single-cell targeted optical control of neural activity. Dr. Boyden has received the Grete Lundbeck Brain Prize (2013), the Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award (2013), the Carnegie Prize in Mind and Brain Sciences (2015), the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2015), the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2016), and the Canada Gairdner International Award (2018).  He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Inventors.

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