3 Scientists Share Nobel For Parastic Disease Breakthroughs

The Australian reports that a trio of scientists (hailing from from Japan, China, and Ireland) has been awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Medicine for their work in treating parasitic diseases. Irish scientist William Campbell (currently research fellow emeritus at New Jersey's Drew University), and Japanese biochemist Satoshi Omura, were awarded half of the monetary award for their work in defeating roundworm infections; the drug they developed as a result, Avermectin, has helped drastically lower two devastating diseases -- river blindness and lymphatic filariasis -- and has shown promise in treating other ailments as well. The other half of the prize has been awarded to Chinese researcher Youyou Tu, who discovered a novel antimalarial drug based on her research into traditional herbal medicines. (Also at The Washington Post, CNN, The New York Times, and elsewhere. The awards were live-blogged by The Guardian.)

Comments

3 Scientists Share Nobel for Discovery

[Alomex]

How do we know they won it because of those discoveries and not something else? after all correlation does not imply causation, and frankly the fact that it is explicitly mentioned in the citation for the prize is just anecdotal evidence not data.

Parasites

[king neckbeard]

Only one scientist did the work. The other two just leeched off of him to take credit.