Redox Pioneer: Professor Leopold Flohe

Leopold Flohé is recognized here as a Redox Pioneer because has published a article on antioxidant/redox biology, as first author, that has been cited more than 1,000 times, and more than 20 articles have been cited more than 100 times. He obtained the medical doctorate at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Tübingen, Germany, in 1968. He held positions in both Academia (Tübingen, Aachen, and Braunschweig, Germany) and industry (Aachen). He is now operating the biotech company MOLISA in Magdeburg, Germany, while teaching as guest professor at the local university. Dr. Flohé is the pioneer who established the selenoprotein nature of glutathione peroxidase (GPx), the first and, for almost 10 years, the only selenoprotein known in animals. His work was pivotal to link the essential trace element selenium to metabolic processes, which led the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve selenium supplementation for humans in 1980, and stimulated selenium biochemistry in general. In recent years, he embarked on investigating how pathogens protect themselves from oxidative killing. His inseminating studies on the thiol-dependent hydroperoxide metabolism of trypanosomatids and mycobacteria defined molecular drug targets, paving the way to new therapeutic strategies for neglected diseases affecting the people of developing countries.