Lucy Wills: Google Doodle pays tribute to medical pioneer who discovered folic acid

She identified the health benefits of what is now known as folic acid

Google is celebrating the life and work of English haematologist Lucy Wills with a Google Doodle on what would have been her 131st birthday.

Wills, who is remembered for her pioneering research into the prevention of prenatal anaemia, was born in England in 1888.

She completed a degree in botany and geology at Cambridge University in 1911, but it wasn’t until 1914 that Wills became involved in medicine – when she volunteered as a nurse in Cape Town when the first World War broke out.

Upon her return to London, Wills received her medical degree from the London School of Medicine for Women, where her interest in the study and treatment of blood was first sparked.

In 1928, Wills travelled to India to investigate a severe form of anaemia that was affecting pregnant textile workers in Bombay.

There, she identified poor nutrition as the culprit behind the life-threatening macrocytic anaemia, which caused red blood cells to become larger than normal during pregnancy.

In laboratory experiments, Wills attempted to prevent anaemia by adding yeast extract to the diets of rats and then monkeys through the consumption of the popular breakfast spread Marmite.

The extract, which was later identified as folic acid, improved the health of the monkeys – a discovery named the “Wills Factor”.

Folic acid is now commonly recommended for pregnant women, alongside other important nutrients such as iron and B12, for the prenatal prevention of anaemia and other conditions.

Wills spent the remainder of her life travelling and researching the impact nutrition has on pregnancy health, before her death on 16 April, 1964.