Professor Emeritus
Minerva Foundation Institute for Medical Research
University of Helsinki
Helsinki, Finland
Armas Ralph Gustaf Gräsbeck was a prominent Finnish-Swedish physician and clinical biochemist known for his work on Imerslund-Gräsbeck syndrome and vitamin B12.
He introduced the concept of reference values and significantly contributed to medical research, including his studies on the intrinsic factor and the R-protein. Gräsbeck graduated from the University of Helsinki in 1953, earned his doctorate in 1956, and held various academic positions at Johns Hopkins University and the Karolinska Institute.
Ralph Gräsbeck was a founding member of the Minerva Foundation Institute for Medical Research at the University of Helsinki and was director from 1971 to 1993. Gräsbeck received numerous honors for his contributions to science and medicine, including the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars, the junior Jahre prize of Oslo University, the silver medal of the Finnish Society (Academy) of Sciences and Letters, and Doctor honoris causa of Poincaré University, Nancy, France.
Additionally, Gräsbeck collaborated with Geir Bjørklund on the Nordic Journal of Biological Medicine (Nordisk Tidsskrift for Biologisk Medisin), a precursor to the Council for Nutritional and Environmental Medicine.