Education

• Postdoctoral training, Duke University, 1971-1973
• PhD, Columbia University, 1967-1971

Research

Henry Jay Forman, PhD, focuses on the areas of oxidative stress and signal transduction. One major NIH funded project investigates the mechanisms underlying the decline in antioxidant protection in aging that increases susceptibility to air pollution-induced inflammation. This project involves the dynamics of the interactions between the Nrf2 and NF-kappa B signaling pathways. Another major aspect of Forman’s research is investigating the role of oxidative stress in the pathology of sickle cell disease as part of a large NIH supported project at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.

Overview

Forman has held faculty positions at the University of Kansas (Biochemistry), University of Pennsylvania (Physiology), University of Alabama at Birmingham (Chair of Environmental Health Sciences), University of California at Merced (Founding Faculty in School of Natural Sciences) and at USC previously (Pediatrics, Molecular Pharmacology and Toxicology, Pathology).

Forman’s research achievements are pioneering work in mitochondrial superoxide production in which he demonstrated that manganese superoxide dismutase actually pulls the reaction forward, redox signaling in which he first demonstrated signaling by endogenously generated hydrogen peroxide, and mechanisms of induced resistance to oxidative stress in which he demonstrated the induction by quinones of the first enzyme in glutathione biosynthesis. He has over 225 peer-reviewed publications and been an invited lecturer at many national and international symposia. Forman is Past President of the Society for Free Radical Biology and Medicine and served for many years as the Reviews Editor of Free Radical Biology & Medicine. He is now Editor-in-Chief of Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics.