Luis Federico Leloir

Biography

Luis Federico Leloir was an Argentinean physician and biochemist who won the Noble Prize for Chemistry for finding out the processes which convert carbohydrates into energy in the body. He was born in France but moved to Argentina with his family when he was only two-year-old. He started his research work on the role of adrenalin on the metabolism of carbohydrates and the effects of fatty acids when oxidized. Later on he worked on the process in which carbohydrate entering the body was broken down by nucleotides to produce sugar which was stored in the body and then converted into energy. He proved to the world that true scientific research on an international level could be carried out in a third-world and underdeveloped country even when the country is gripped with political unrest. Lenoir was also a good craftsman which helped him build equipments required for carrying out his experiments. Funds for research in Argentina were not readily available at that time. In times of distress Leloir’s expertise in making his own equipment helped him tide over difficulties faced due to the unavailability of proper tools allowing him to continue with his work without any hindrance.

Research Interest

He and his team discovered the sugar nucleotides responsible for the metabolism of carbohydrates in the beginning of 1948 and later the primary mechanisms of galactose metabolism, presently known as ‘Leloir pathway’, which caused ‘galactesemia’.