Luis F. Leloir began a career in medicine but found himself drawn to the relatively more tractable problems posed by biochemistry. His early research involved investigations of fatty acids in the liver, which led to the discovery of antihypertensives. In a subsquent search for the "missing link" in the conversion of carbohydrates in the body into energy, Leloir discovered a group of substances called sugar nucleotides, which allowed him and others to determine the precise mechanism of energy conversion. Leloir also discovered glycogen, which is synthesized along with nucleotides and is the major store of energy in animal cells. Leloir's work with sugar nucleotides won him the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1970.

Luis Federico Leloir was born on September 6, 1906, in Paris, France. Leloir's grandparents on both sides were immigrants to Argentina from France and Spain. When they moved to Argentina they invested in land, which turned to considerable...