Satoshi Omura

Omura isolated a novel species of Streptomyces from a soil sample collected at a golf course in Japan, which he named Streptomyces avermitilis. This bacterium was found to produce a family of compounds called avermectins that showed extraordinary potency against parasitic roundworms.

Omura sent his promising Streptomyces cultures to William Campbell's laboratory at Merck in the United States, where the compounds they produced were tested for antiparasitic activity. Campbell's team identified avermectin, which Merck chemists then modified into ivermectin—a safer, more potent version that became one of the most widely used antiparasitic drugs in both veterinary and human medicine.

Omura has been affiliated with Kitasato University in Tokyo, Japan, for much of his career, where he served as a professor and later distinguished professor. He has also been associated with the Kitasato Institute, a private research organization with a long history of contributions to Japanese microbiology.

Omura shared the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with William Campbell of Drew University and Tu Youyou of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. Omura and Campbell were jointly recognized for their discovery of avermectin and its therapeutic impact on parasitic diseases, while Tu Youyou was honored for discovering the antimalarial drug artemisinin.