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. 2015 Dec 3;163(6):1297-300.
doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2015.11.031.

A New Golden Age of Natural Products Drug Discovery

Ben Shen  1
Affiliations

A New Golden Age of Natural Products Drug Discovery

Ben Shen. Cell. .

Abstract

The 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to William C. Campbell, Satoshi Omura, and Youyou Tu for the discovery of avermectins and artemisinin, respectively, therapies that revolutionized the treatment of devastating parasite diseases. With the recent technological advances, a New Golden Age of natural products drug discovery is dawning.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Discovery of avermectin from S. avermitilis and artemisinin from A. annua
A. Soil samples Omura collected near a golf course, from which the avermectin producing S. avermitilis was isolated, and Campbell discovered avermectins and developed them into ivermectin. B. The ancient Chinese medicine “Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies” that inspired Tu to discovery artimisinin from the A. annua L. plants.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. Ikeda H, Nonomiya T, Usami M, Ohta T, Omura S. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 1999;96:9509–9514. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

Personal name as subject