3 Scientists Win Nobel Prize For Parasite Treatments

04:44

October 05, 2015

Urban Lendahl (right), Secretary of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, addresses a press conference of the Nobel Committee to announce the winners of the 2015 Nobel Medicine Prize on October 5, 2015 at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. Irish-born William Campbell, Satoshi Omura of Japan and China's Youyou Tu (their portraits are displayed on the screen in background) are the laureates of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2015. (Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images)

William Campbell, Satoshi Omura and Youyou Tu were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday, for their discoveries of therapies for the treatment of parasitic diseases.

Campbell, of Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, and Omura, of Kitasato University in Tokyo, worked together to develop the drug Avermectin, a derivative of which has nearly eradicated African river blindness (onchocerciasis) and reduced elephantiasis. Tu, of Beijing, China, made discoveries to help reduce malaria by reading massive amounts of literature on traditional ancient Chinese medicines.

Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson speaks with researcher Steven Williams of Smith College for a look at the importance of these discoveries.

Guest

Steven Williams, professor of biology and biochemistry at Smith College.

This segment aired on October 5, 2015.