WSU researcher named one of the 2000 Outstanding Scientists of the 20th Century

Anders Sima, MD, PhD, professor of pathology and neurology at the Wayne State University (WSU) School of Medicine, has been named one of the 2000 Outstanding Scientists of the 20th Century by the University of Cambridge. Dr. Sima will be featured with other honorees in a book compiled by the International Biographical Centre at Cambridge.

Dr. Sima, an internationally recognized expert on diabetic neuropathy and dementia, has made many original contributions to the health science field. In the 1980s, he was the first researcher to describe the pathogenesis of diffuse Lewy body dementia, the most common form of senile dementia after Alzheimer's disease. He was also part of the research group which presented the first description and genetic characterization of chromosome 17-linked dementia. In the 1970s, he made major innovations to diabetes research by characterizing diabetic neuropathy as an axonal disorder, and he recently separated the neuropathies of type-1 and type-2 diabetes into two distinct entities.

Dr. Sima is actively involved in the research and development of the newly established Wayne State University Morris Hood, Jr. Comprehensive Diabetes Center. After establishing himself as an international authority in diabetes research over the past two decades, Dr. Sima and his research team at the WSU School of Medicine are currently investigating the hereditary components of the disease through a large-scale study of populations with a high incidence of type-1 diabetes. They are focusing on diabetic patients who lack C peptide, which may play an important role in causing serious neuropathologic problems.

As editor-in-chief for two international diabetes journals, and member of the editorial boards for several others, Dr. Sima continues to establish himself as a productive researcher. He has more than 400 scientific publications and 70 book chapters on diabetes and senile dementias. In addition, he has won numerous awards and honorary degrees.

Dr. Sima completed his medical education and training in Sweden. In 1978, he became a faculty member at the University of Toronto, where he was promoted to full professor of pathology and physiology in 1982. He then served as director of the Diabetes Research Centre at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. In 1990, he joined the faculty at the University of Michigan and in 1996, he came to the Wayne State University School of Medicine/Detroit Medical Center where he serves as professor and staff neuropathologist.

# # #