Miguel Angel Ondetti was an Argentine-born American chemist who first synthesized captopril, the first ACE inhibitor that was used to treat heart disease.
29 Facts About Miguel Ondetti
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Miguel A Ondetti was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina; on May 23,1930.
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Miguel Ondetti's mother was an Argentine-born Italian, while his father's family had first emigrated from Italy to Paris, then to Argentina.
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Miguel Ondetti's father practiced a family craft of making garden furniture from cement that imitated tree trunks.
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Miguel Ondetti's mother was a housewife who cared for Miguel and his only brother, who is two years older.
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Miguel Ondetti tried to electroplate a knife using a copper sulfate solution, only to shock himself.
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At the age of 16, Miguel Ondetti worked a day job while conducting his studies at night.
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Miguel Ondetti stated, "But then, I was already interested in being scientist, I think probably from the year that I started high school" in his 1995 interview.
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Not discouraged, Miguel Ondetti audited his classes and received his baccalaureate in just two years.
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Miguel Ondetti supported himself during his university years by working as a bookkeeper, using his first high school degree.
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Miguel Ondetti managed to get an early shift at the Department of Energy.
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Miguel Ondetti stated that his main interest was biology, "but one can't understand biology without chemistry".
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Miguel Ondetti used this for his motivation to studying chemistry.
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Miguel Ondetti spent five years learning organic, physical, inorganic, biological and analytical chemistry.
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Miguel Ondetti accepted a research training scholarship offered by Squibb following the suggestion from a classmate.
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Miguel Ondetti reluctantly worked on carbohydrates for one year, after which Deulofeu offered him a job at Squibb.
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Miguel Ondetti refused, citing "I turned it down, because Deulofeu was an outstanding scientist, but he was very cold in the interaction with his collaborators".
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Miguel Ondetti received his PhD from the University of Buenos Aires in 1960.
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Miguel Ondetti had multiple obstacles to overcome to work in the US.
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Miguel Ondetti considered Sabo to be such an accurate and skilled chemist, that he let her do all the experiments.
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Miguel Ondetti moved to the gastrointestinal hormone group in the mid 1960s.
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The first hormone to be studied by Miguel Ondetti's group was cholecystokinin, a digestion hormone.
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Miguel Ondetti started work on the isolation of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors.
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In 1974, Miguel Ondetti resumed unofficial work on ACE inhibitors with strong resolve, "We said this was the thing that we had to do".
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Miguel Ondetti argued that using a strong chemical binder to the zinc in the enzyme would increase activity.
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Miguel Ondetti settled on using a sulfhydryl group which binds strongly to zinc.
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Miguel Ondetti had discovered Captopril, an ACE inhibitor with much better activity than previous compounds.
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Miguel Ondetti published his primary paper on his synthesis in Science, 1977.
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Miguel Ondetti remained active in research, gaining patents in 1985,1992, and 1993.