Moussa B. H. Youdim is an internationallly reknowwn Israeli neuroscientist specializing in neurochemistry and neuropharmacology. He is the discoverer of both monoamine oxidase (MAO) B inhibitors l-deprenyl (Selegiline) and rasagiline (Azilect) as anti-Parkinson drugs which possess neuroprotective activities. He is currently Professor Emeritus at Technion - Faculty of Medicine and President of Youdim Pharmaceuticals. Early life Youdim was born in Tehran, Iran second of five children. His father worked and traded with the British and wanted that the boys to be educated in England. He and his brother were sent to England boarding school in UK. He wanted to go to Medical school to study medicine and obtained his preclinical studies in Borough Polytechnique in London. He went to McGill University in Montreal and where he obtained his B.Sc., M.Sc and Ph.D in biochemistry between 1959-1966. Scientific career Youdim upon joining Professor Theodore L Sourkes's laboratory at Allan Memorial Institute, McGill Department of Psychiatry, began to work on the M.Sc.followed by Ph.D. He has focused most of his life on the field of neurochemistry and neuropharmacology of aminergic neurotransmitters in health and disease. In his M.Sc and Ph.D. Studies he purified mitochondrial MAO and demonstrated two forms of the enzymes, which were later named A and B by Johnson ( ). One of his most important contributions to science was working with Professor Merton Sandler in London to study MAO inhibitors as anti-depressants and anti-Parkinson drugs. A chance meeting with Professor Peter Riederer resulted in employing the MAO-B inhibitor, l-deprenyl (selegiline), in Parkinson's disease since the human brain basal ganglia were rich in MAO-B and dopamine. The clinical study was a success and was confirmed by others in clinical studies and eventual approval of selegiline by FDA. Youdim has published almost nine hundred papers and reviews and edited 45 books in neurochemistry, neuropharmacology, multi-target drug development, and transcriptomics. He pioneered the study of brain iron dysregulation on brain function. This included its nutritional deficiency, which results in cognitive impairment and learning process in animal models and children with nutritional iron deficiency. And iron accumulation in brain neurons results in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, where iron may induce neurodegeneration from resultant oxidative stress. Academic career 1966–1971. Post-doctoral fellow at University of London Post Graduate School, Queen Charlotte Maternity Hospital in Merton Sandler's laboratory 1971. Department of Biochemistry Cambridge University in K.F. Tipton's laboratory 1972. Wellcome Trust Fellow at College de France