Louis Issac Woolf

Louis Isaac Woolf (born 1919 in London, England; died 2021 in Vancouver, Canada) was a British biochemist who played a crucial role in the early detection (via neonatal screening) and the treatment of phenylketonuria (PKU).

Early life Woolf was born in London, England, on 24 April 1919. He was born in Hackney, London to a Romanian Jewish family. He had 4 siblings.

Career

He studied chemistry at University College London (UCL) and was awarded a PhD in 1945. However, the idea that it could be treated through diet was proposed by some doctors since the 1930s, shortly after the condition was first described. However, this was not easy as scientists struggled to reduce the levels of phenylalanine in food. which he researched in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

In 1957, Woolf and colleagues recommended mass screening for PKU using a ferric chloride test on urine samples from newborn babies. They emphasised the importance of early diagnosis and treatment, proposing screening at 21 days after birth.