INNOVATION

Irishman William Campbell receives his Nobel Prize for Medicine

10 Dec 2015

William Campbell | Nobel Prize for Medicine

William Campbell, Nobel Prize winner for Medicine, 2015 – via YouTube

Irishman William Campbell has received the Nobel Prize for Medicine that he won back in October – Campbell’s role in discoveries concerning therapies to fight roundworm parasitic infections helped him win the accolade.

William Campbell’s Nobel Prize in Medicine is actually shared with Satoshi Ōmura, with both men’s work leading to the development of a drug called Avermectin, which has seen the creation of derivatives that have “radically lowered the incidence of River Blindness and Lymphatic Filariasis”.

Campbell received his accolade at a Nobel Prize Award Ceremony today (10 December) in Stockholm, streamed live on YouTube, having been originally named back in October.

William Campbell, Nobel Prize winner

Now 85 years of age, Campbell is the third Trinity College graduate ever to have been awarded a Nobel Prize (E.T.S. Walton got one for splitting the atom, and Samuel Beckett for his contribution to literature).

Campbell also studied at the University of Wisconsin in 1957, before a long career with the Merck Institute for Therapeutic Research

Campbell and Ōmura’s Avermectin’s discovery is ongoing, too, with the drug “showing efficacy against an expanding number of other parasitic diseases”, according to the Nobel Prize organisers.

In recent years, Campbell has become a Research Fellow Emeritus at Drew University in the US, with other alumni celebrating his success.

Gordon Hunt was a journalist with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com