Luis Federico LeloirDied 2 Dec 1987 at age 81 (born 6 Sep 1906). Argentine biochemist who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1970 for "his discovery of sugar nucleotides and their role in the biosynthesis of carbohydrates" (investigations of the processes by which carbohydrates are converted into energy in the body). Leloir, working in simple circumstances, isolated uridine diphosphate glucose and showed that it was incorporated into glycogen in the presence of a liver enzyme. He also worked out the mechanism of synthesis of starch. Leloir's discoveries - that the sugar nucleotides are principal actors in interconversion of sugars and polysaccharide formation - led to additional research in carbohydrate metabolism and on the medical implications of the discoveries. |
