Elisabeth Davioud-Charvet obtained a Ph.D. degree in chemistry of natural products in 1988 at the University of Paris 11. In 1990, she was recruited as junior researcher at CNRS, in the Laboratoire de Chimie Organique Biologique, URA 493 CNRS-Paris 6 University, and started her independent research career in 1995 as CNRS researcher at Pasteur Institute of Lille. In 2001, she moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan University as Visiting Scientist for one year to acquire experience in physicochemistry of flavoenzymes and in the synthesis of mechanism-based inhibitors of human and malaria parasite P. falciparum thioredoxin reductases. Back to Europe, she was invited to the Biochemistry centre (BZH) of Heidelberg University as an independent group leader to develop antiparasitic therapeutic chemistry. After 9 years, she moved to Strasbourg University where she is presently group leader of the bio(In)organic & medicinal chemistry team in the research unit “Laboratory for Molecular Innovation & Applications” UMR CNRS 7042-LIMA of Strasbourg University. She has pioneered the design and synthesis of antiparasitic redox-cyclers, and the understanding of their mechanism of action via cascades of redox reactions inducing reactive oxygen species. She discovered the antimalarial lead 3-benzylmenadione, called plasmodione, affecting the redox equilibrium of P. falciparum-infected red blood cells. She also designed chemical tools for drug activity-based protein profiling and parasite imaging.
