Nobel Prize Laureate Tu Youyou (Left) poses for a photo with two health officials who visit her on Monday, Feb. 1, 2016. [Photo: 163.com]

Chinese Nobel Laureate Tu Youyou has received a special gift from Chinese health authorities, naming an asteroid after the scientist.

Li Bin, head of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, presented the certificate of the named asteroid to Tu Youyou on Monday at her home.The code of the asteroid is 21230.

The last four digits represent her birthday. Tu Youyou was born on Dec. 30, 1930.

The 85-year old pharmacologist won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her work with artemisinin, which is now widely used to fight Malaria.