Science & invention
Ananda Prasad
1928–2022 · physician, medical researcher
Indian-born physician at Wayne State University in Detroit who proved that zinc is essential to human health.
- Born
Buxar, Bihar, India- Died
- Birth name
- Ananda Shiv Prasad
- Also known as
- Ananda S. Prasad
- Detroit years
- 1963–2022
- Field
- Science & invention
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Prasad was born in Buxar, in the Indian state of Bihar, in 1928, studied medicine at Patna Medical College and earned his doctorate at the University of Minnesota. Working in Iran in the late 1950s, he studied young men who were severely stunted and anemic and concluded that their diet left them short of zinc, a trace element then not thought to matter for people. In 1963 he joined Wayne State University in Detroit as an assistant professor of medicine and director of hematology, a post he held until 1984, and later served as director of research for the Department of Internal Medicine. From Detroit he and his colleagues showed zinc deficiency in human studies and tied the mineral to growth, immunity and wound healing, work that led to zinc supplements and fortified foods worldwide. He is regarded as the foremost researcher on zinc metabolism. He died in 2022.
Highlights
- Discovered human zinc deficiency, from studies begun in Iran
- Director of hematology at Wayne State University, 1963–1984
- Director of research, Wayne State Department of Internal Medicine
- Regarded as the leading researcher on zinc metabolism
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1963–2010s
Wayne State University School of Medicine
His research base for more than five decades.