Functional Genomics of Artemisia annua and Metabolic Engineering of ArtemisinIN

Overview

Artemisia annua (called sweet wormwood in English and Qinghao 青蒿 in Chinese ) is a Traditional Chinese medicine plant. This plant has been prescribed for more than two thousand years for the treatment of fever and chilly symptoms. From 1969 to 1977, professor Youyou Tu (a Nobel Laureate in 2015 ) and her colleagues identified Qinghaosu (artemisinin)-an unique sesquiterpene lactone endoperoxide from this medicinal plant and further tested herself to demonstrate that this novel phytochemical was an effective medicine for the treatment of malaria caused by parasites in the genus of Plasmodium. A survey carried out by BBC voted that professors Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Alan Turing and Youyou Tu were the most four extraordinary scientists in the 20th century.

Artemisinin is highly effective in the treatment of severe and malignant malaria infected by other medicine-resistant P. falciparum, which causes the life loss of hundreds of thousands of people mainly consisting of pregnant women and children under five-year old every year. Artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) is the recommended therapy to cure falciparum-infected malaria in more than 87 epidemic countries including nearly 2.5 billion people.

In addition, artemisinin has antivirus, anticancer, and anti-diabetes activities.

We are using an integrated approach to understand biosynthesis of artemisinin and other medicinal metabolites in this medicinal plant. We are endeavoring to develop elite plants for tons of artemisinin production with low cost. This will help reduce the ACT price to allow people in developing countries to be able to afford medical cost.

Moreover, we are developing technology to produce novel artemisinin derivatives.