Omura, Satoshi (1935-…), a Japanese biochemist , won the 2015 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for discoveries on the treatment of infections caused by roundworms . Biochemistry is the study of the chemical processes that take place in all living things. Omura shared the prize with the Irish-born American parasitologist William C. Campbell and the Chinese researcher Tu Youyou . A parasitologist is a scientist who studies parasites.
Working independently, Omura and Campbell 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. Omura identified certain compounds produced by Streptomyces, a microbe that grows in soil, that act against several kinds of infections. One compound, called avermectin, has been developed into highly effective drugs that protect people and animals from diseases caused by roundworm parasites .
Omura was born on July 12, 1935, in the Yamanashi Prefecture, near Tokyo, Japan. He studied science at Yamanashi University and at the Tokyo University of Science. He received a Ph.D degree in pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Tokyo in 1968. He earned another Ph.D degree, in chemistry, from the Tokyo University of Science in 1970. He worked at Yamanashi University from 1963 to 1965. He then began work with the Kitasato Institute in Tokyo. He is currently emeritus (retired) professor at Kitasato University.
