Moroder started his peptide research with the synthesis of the S-peptide of ribonuclease A and studies on this protein-peptide complex. It was one of the first demonstrations of the key and lock principle in peptide hormone receptor interactions.[4] As research associate he worked on the synthesis of radioactiveadrenocorticotropin, which represents one of the first synthetic research works on human peptide hormones.[3] Moroder's work at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried was initially focused on the gastrin and cholecystokinin system, revealing the mechanism for the membrane-bound pathway of hormone recognition by the receptors.[5] In parallel, he worked on synthetic methods in peptide and protein chemistry such as the introduction of di-tert-butyl dicarbonate as a general and widely used reagent in peptide chemistry,[6]regioselective assembly of cystine-rich peptides,[7] and the synthesis of highly robust disulfide and diselenide scaffolds.[8]
In the later phase of his research, Moroder became increasingly interested in the study of more complex biological and medical systems by chemical means. For example, he addressed fundamental questions of the kinetics of protein folding[9] and actively contributed to the design and synthesis of enzyme inhibitors involved in various diseases, including cancer.[10] In the 1990s Luis Moroder and Robert Huber supported Nediljko Budisa in establishing genetic code engineering in Germany - a research area that merges chemical syntheses with biological complexities in the form of chemical synthetic biology (Xenobiology).[11][12]
Personal life and death
Luis Moroder grew up in the small ethnic community of Ladins in the Dolomites of South Tyrol in Northern Italy. As a boy he became fascinated by natural science while accompanying his father Heinrich on mineralogical, paleontological and archaeological excursions in the mountain world of his homeland with discoveries of various fossiles that are exemplary shown in the Museum Gherdeina.
Moroder was married to Anne Marie Hellrigl-Moroder with one daughter. He died on 18 May 2024, at the age of 83.[13]
^ abMoroder, L.; Hofmann, K. (1970). "Studies on polypeptides. XLVI. Synthesis of a stably labeled, biologically active adrenocorticotropin fragment". J Med Chem. 13 (5): 839–843. doi:10.1021/jm00299a010. PMID4318767.
^Moroder, L.; Borin, G.; Marchiori, F.; Rocchi, R.; Scoffone, E. (1973). "Kinetic and physical chemical studies on partially synthetic ribonuclease S-analogs". Peptides 1971, Proc. XIth Europ. Peptide Symposium. Amsterdam: North Holland. pp. 367–372.
^Moroder, L.; Romano, R.; Guba, W.; Mierke, D. F.; Kessler, H.; Delporte, C.; Winand, J.; Christophe, J. (1993). "New evidence for a membrane-bound pathway in hormone receptor binding". Biochemistry. 32 (49): 13551–13559. doi:10.1021/bi00212a022. PMID7504952.
^Moroder, L.; Hallett, A.; Wünsch, E.; Keller, O.; Wersin, G. (1976). "Di-tert-Butyldicarbonat: ein vorteilhaftes Reagenz zur Einführung der tert-Butyloxycarbonyl-Schutzgruppe" [Di-tert-butyl-dicarbonate, a useful tert-butyloxycarbonylating reagent]. Hoppe-Seyler's Z. Physiol. Chem. 357 (11): 1651–1653. doi:10.1515/bchm2.1976.357.2.1651. PMID1002132.
