2016 CVM News: Nobel laureate William Campbell describes developing a new drug to Cornell audience

Abstract

The news item is about: William Campbell, PhD, first encountered parasites on his family’s farm in Ireland. Instead of being repelled, he was fascinated. In 1978, Dr. Campbell was working for Merck Institute for Therapeutic Research when a call went out for a radically new way to rid animals of parasitic infections. His collaboration with Japanese researcher Satoshi Omura of the Kitasato Institute led to the development of the antiparasitic drug ivermectin, for which they shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015. On Oct. 13, 2016, Dr. Campbell described the process that resulted in the discovery of the drug for a standing room-only crowd on the Cornell campus.