Moussa B. H. Youdim (, ; born, February 28, 1940) is an Israeli neuroscientist specializing in neurochemistry and neuropharmacology. He is the discoverer of both monoamine oxidase (MAO) B inhibitors l-deprenyl (Selegiline) and rasagiline (Azilect) used as anti-Parkinson drugs which possess neuroprotective activities. He is currently professor emeritus at Technion - Faculty of Medicine and President of Youdim Pharmaceuticals. He was awarded the EMET Prize for Brain Sciences in 2010 and the Israel Prize in Life Sciences in 2022.
Youdim was born on February 28, 1940, in Tehran, Iran, the son of Farangiss Lahijani and Eliahoo Youdim, a businessman. He attended Jewish school in Teheran and in 1952 he left Iran to study in a Jewish school in Brighton, England.
He earned a B.Sc degree in biochemistry in 1972 from McGill University in Montreal. In 1964 he received his masters degree in the laboratory of Professor T. L. Sourkes at McGill Biochemistry Department and Psychiatry Department at Allan Memorial Institute . In his master's thesis he studied the effect of heat, inhibitors and riboflavin deficiency on mitochondrial monoamine oxidase in liver and brain and identified two forms of monoamine oxidases. For his doctoral research in the same lab the topic was the purification and characterization of mitochondrial membrane bound monoamine oxidase in the liver and brain, being one of the first to do so receiving his PhD in 1966.
His postdoctoral research 1966-1971 was with Prof. Merton Sandler at London University Post Graduate School at Queen CharlotteâÂÂs Maternity Hospital, London and continued his research on brain monoamine oxidases. He, Merton Sandler and Edda Hannington of the Wellcome Trust established the defect in metabolism of dietary food stuffs such as cheese and chocolate in initiating migraine headache in susceptible subjects. They received the Gold Medal of British Migraine association in 1974. He spent a year in K.F. TiptonâÂÂs laboratory, in the department of biochemistry, University of Cambridge. In 1972 he received a Wellcome Trust Travelling Fellowship to be at College de France in Paris in Jaques Glowinski's department.
From 1973 to 1977 he was a senior research associate in MRC Unit and department of clinical pharmacology at the faculty of medicine, University of Oxford. At Oxford he pioneered research on the effect of nutritional iron deficiency on cognition and learning in rats and how it affects the brain dopmaine neurotransmission system, confirming learning disabilities observed in children with nutritional iron deficiency. He continued to study the neurophamacology of monoamine oixdase A and B and he also pioneered the first use of monoamine oxidase B inhibitor l-deprenyl (later named selegiline),a failed antidepressant developed by Hungarian drug company, Chinoin as anti-Parkinson drug with Prof. Peter Reiderer and Walter Birkmeyer.
In 1977 he moved to Israel to establish the Pharmacology Department at the fledgling faculty of medicine of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, which was three years old at the time. He was chairman of the department from 1977 until 1994.. There he continued the work he had started on the dysregulation of brain iron metabolism and function. Together with Peter Reiderer they identified accumulation of iron in the dopamine neurons of substantia nigra pars compacta of Parkinsonian brains and role of iron initiated oxidative stress induced neurodegeneration. He went on to show that iron chelators such as desferalthat came to him acted as neuroprotective drugs in the animal moldes of Parkinson's disease.
He identified a drug, AGN1135, that he received from Aspro Nicholas Company in 1968, while he was Merton Sandler, as second potent selective monoamine oxidase B inhibitor. With John Finberg and Teva Pharmaceutical company they developed the R-isomer of AGN1135 as treatment for Parkinson's disease, the second monoamine oxidase B inhibitor, rasagiline (Azilect). First as initial mono therapy or as add-on therapy to levodopa or dopamine 2 receptor agonists later in the disease. Results of the ADAGIO clinical study suggest that the drug may have a positive impact on slowing clinical progression of the disease.
Youdim's research priorities are in neurosciences, pharmacology, neurotransmitter systems, and neurological diseases, specifically ParkinsonâÂÂs disease. His primary research is on the monoamine oxidase enzyme and its role in the pathogenesis of ParkinsonâÂÂs disease and the development of selective inhibitors of this enzyme. Medications developed to inhibit monoamine oxidase B have since become an established method of treating ParkinsonâÂÂs disease. He also conducts research on other neurodegenerative disorders such as AlzheimerâÂÂs disease, focusing on the disruption in cholinergic neurotransmission associated with this disease.
He also pioneered and developed novel multi target iron chelators with monoamine oxidase and cholinesterase inhibitory activities for treatment of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig disease). These drugs possess neuroprotective and neurorestorative activities in several animal models of Parkinson's disease.
He has been a Distinguished Scientific Professor in universities and institutes around the world including;
From 1997 - 2012 he was a director of the National Parkinson Foundation's Center of Excellence, USA. and the Eve Topf Center of Excellence for Neurodegenerative Diseases at Technion Medical School.
He holds over 100 patents in neuropsychiatric drug development and cardiovascular drugs.
He has published over 900 scientific articles, which have been cited close to 80,000 times, and his H-Index is 146. He has edited over 45 books.
He has been editorial board member of 43 international scientific journals, including British Journal of Pharmacology, Journal of Neurochemistry, Journal of Neural Transmission, Experimental Neurology, International Neurochemistry, Psychopharmacology. International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, Archives of Pharmacology, Frontiers in Pharmacology, European Journal of Pharmacology, Biogenic Amines, Neuropsychobiology, Neurochemical Research; Brain Research, CNS Drug Review, Future Drugs, Drugs of Today, and Neurotherapeutics.
Youdim has received more than 50 national and international prizes, awards, honors, several honorary doctorates and Distinguished Professorships. In 1997 he was granted an honorary doctorate from Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary; in 1998 from University of Pisa and Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy.
In honor of his 80th birthday a special issue of Neurochemical Research and Journal Neural Transmission dedicated to him were published.
He established the Annual Eliahoo Youdim Lecture in depression at National Institue of Psychobiology in Israel in honor of his father who suffered from depression throughout his life.
In 2013 he established The Youdim Family Prize at Rambam Hospitalin Haifa, granted annually to researchers for medical or biomedical cancer research which demonstrates excellence, novelty, and/or scientific breakthroughs. As of 2021 two annual grants are awarded to cancer research PhD students nearing completion of their degrees at an Israeli academic institution.
Youdim was a consultant to Roche, TEVA Pharmaceuticals Ltd; Ciba Geigy, and Continental Pharmaceuticals, Brussels.
He founded Abital Pharma in 2012 and Youdim Pharmaceuticals in 2016 and is president and chief scientific officer.
He is a discoverer of the anti-Parkinson drugs selelgiline (l-deprenyl) and developer of monoamine oxidase B inhibitor rasagiline (Azilect), which was considered to be the first disease modifying drug used for Parkinson's disease and TVP 3326, ladostigil, for Alzheimer's disease. Experts have recently questioned whether rasagiline actually has significant disease modifying properties.