Campbell, William Cecil (1930-…), an Irish-born American parasitologist, won the 2015 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for developing drugs to treat diseases caused by roundworm infection. A parasitologist is a scientist who studies parasites. Campbell shared the prize with the Japanese biochemist Satoshi Omura and the Chinese researcher Tu Youyou . Biochemistry is the study of chemical processes that take place in living things.
Campbell and Omura independently studied chemical compounds that are effective against roundworms. At least 14 species of roundworms cause infection in people, and millions of people are seriously infected worldwide. Campbell studied compounds discovered by Omura that are produced by Streptomyces, a microbe that grows in soil. These compounds act against bacteria and other microbes. Campbell found that one compound was active against roundworm parasites in animals. The compound, called avermectin, has been developed into highly effective drugs that protect people and animals from diseases caused by roundworms.
Campbell was born on Jun. 28, 1930, in Londonderry, in Northern Ireland. He graduated from the University of Dublin in 1952. He then moved to the United States, receiving his Ph.D. degree in veterinary science and zoology, with a minor in pathology (the study of disease), at the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1957. That year, he began work at the Merck Institute for Therapeutic Research in Rahway, New Jersey, that lead to the development of avermectin. In 1990, he became a researcher at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey.
