Max Planck director receives science award for production of affordable drugs

Sustainable and affordable: Using plant waste, air and light to produce an active substance against malaria

13-Jan-2021 - The American Chemical Society (ACS) has awarded Peter H. Seeberger and two colleagues the "ACS Award for Affordable Green Chemistry" for developing a particularly efficient chemical process for producing artemisinin. All the components needed to produce the active ingredient come from nature: ...

New findings about anti-malaria drug

30-Jan-2019 - Artemisinin is derived from the leaves and flowers of the annual mugwort (Artemisia annua) and has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries. The effectiveness was investigated by the Chinese researcher Tu Youyou. Her research was 2015 rewarded with the Nobel Prize. Artemisinin and ...

Discovery of novel Malaria parasite behaviour offers new target for treatment

28-May-2018 - Researchers have demonstrated novel parasite behaviour which offers a potential new target for malaria diagnosis and intervention. Malaria, a blood borne disease caused by single cell parasites, remains a major global public health issue with millions of cases, and nearly half a million deaths ...

Detecting bloodstains - with an antimalarial compound

Artemisinin-Luminol reduces false positive results of crime scene blood stains

02-Jun-2017 - As seen on crime shows, investigators use a combination of luminol and other substances to light up bloodstains at crime scenes. But now, researchers report that combining luminol with artemisinin, a natural peroxide and antimalarial treatment, reduces the risk of false positives compared to the ...

New method for producing leading anti-malarial drug

16-Mar-2017 - Researchers at Cardiff University have devised a new way of creating a drug commonly used as the first line of defence against malaria around the world. Artemisinin is a drug recommended by the World Health Organisation for treatment of all cases of severe malaria and works by attacking all ...

Breakthrough in diabetes research

Cells produce insulin instead upon artemisinin treatment

05-Dec-2016 - It promises to be a simple and elegant strategy to heal diabetes type 1: Replacing the destroyed beta-cells in the bodies of patients with newly-produced insulin-secreting cells. For years, researchers around the globe tried various approaches with stem- or adult cells in order to induce this ...

Genetic marker for resistance to malaria treatment identified

09-Nov-2016 - Global efforts to try and treat and eradicate malaria are being hampered by increasing resistance of the disease-causing Plasmodium parasite to anti-malarial drugs. A new study led by the University of Oxford has identified genetic markers linked to resistance to the anti-malarial drug ...

Fighting malaria

Research insight to Nobel laureate Tu

05-Oct-2015 - Malaria was traditionally treated by chloroquine or quinine, but with declining success. By the late 1960s, efforts to eradicate Malaria had failed and the disease was on the rise. At that time, Youyou Tu in China turned to traditional herbal medicine to tackle the challenge of developing novel ...

Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine awarded

William C. Cambell, Satoshi Omura and Youyou Tu awarded for research in parasitic diseases

05-Oct-2015 - The American researcher William C. Cambell and the Japanese researcher Satoshi Omura were awarded with the half of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. They received the award for their research in the field of the parasitic diseases river blindness and lymphatic filariasis. They isolated ...

Anti-malaria drug synthesised with the help of oxygen and light

In future it should be possible to produce the best anti-malaria drug, artemisinin, more economically and in sufficient volumes for all patients

18-Jan-2012 - The most effective anti-malaria drug can now be produced inexpensively and in large quantities. This means that it will be possible to provide medication for the 225 million malaria patients in developing countries at an affordable price. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and ...