New research center for artemisinin breaks ground in Beijing

BEIJING - A new research center focusing on artemisinin, a treatment for malaria, has broken ground in Beijing, according to the Beijing Daily Friday.

Covering an area of 73,000 square meters, the research center is located in the Bio-Pharmaceutical Industry Base in Daxing district and is expected to go into operation in 2021.

The research center will include three buildings, including key laboratory and animal laboratory.

Chinese scientist Tu Youyou won a Nobel Prize for discovering artemisinin, which proved effective in malaria treatment. The new research center will offer research facility support for Tu's team and become China's first professional laboratory dedicated to artemisinin research, according to the report.

Tu Youyou announced in June that her team has proposed solutions to the problem of artemisinin resistance, providing new evidence that artemisinin is still "the best weapon" against malaria, the world's No. 1 insect-borne infectious disease.