Professional role (e.g. Medical scientists), Satoshi Omura and William Campbell, and researcher, Youyou Tu have all clinched this year’s prestigious Nobel Prize for their work in the discovery of life-saving medicines.

Discovering the bacteria, Steptomyces, Japanese microbiologist, Satoshi Omura was able to isolate samples of the bacteria, known to produce antibacterial agents, which he then cultured.

Once Omura was satisfied with some promising samples of the bacteria, his team referred them to the US Merck laboratories, where his Nobel Prize-winning counterpart, biologist, William Campbell, used the samples to treat mice infected with roundworms.

Through testing, Campbell discovered that one of the bacteria samples cleared the parasite, which then prompted him to isolate the roundworm-snuffing compound.

By isolating the compound and tweaking its chemical structure, the scientists were able to develop the broad-spectrum, anti-parasitic medicine, ivermectin in 2012.

Since its release, ivermectin has been administered to more than 200 million people, successfully treating a variety of diseases caused by roundworm.

Second Nobel Prize winner, medical researcher, Youyou Tu, discovered a cure for malaria after North Vietnamese soldiers fighting in the jungles south of China contracted the illness.

Using her knowledge of traditional Chinese remedies to treat fever, Tu boiled the common wormwood plant, atermisia annua (also known as sweet wormwood) and trialled it as a treatment for malaria-infected rats.

Not satisfied with the inconsistent cure rates, Tu utilised a cold extraction method and successfully cured 100 per cent of the malaria-infected mice and monkeys.

Both discoveries of avermectin and artemisinin respectively have provided therapies for patients battling devastating parasitic diseases.