Moore, Walter John

Moore graduated Bachelor of Science from New York University in 1937 and Doctor of Philosophy from Princeton in 1940. In 1940-1941, he was National Research Fellow with the California Institute of Technology. In 1943, he married Patricia Bacon.

From 1942 to 1946, he held appointments with Columbia University and Sharples Corporation, working on the USA Army Manhattan Project. Subsequently, he held academic positions with the Catholic University of America from 1946 to 1952, and Indiana University from 1952 to 1973. In 1966, he was Australian-American Foundation Fellow at the University of Queensland.

The University of Sydney appointed Moore to the Chair of Physical Chemistry in 1973; he retired in 1983. In 1981, he was Honorary research Fellow at La Trobe University. Early in his career, Moore's research was in the fields of photochemistry and solid state chemistry. From 1964, he changed to biophysical chemistry of the nervous system, in particular the disease of multiple sclerosis.

A grant application in series 1, item 1 of this collection reveals that Moore hoped that his research would provide information for the treatment of multiple sclerosis in its early stages. In the later 1970s and early 1980s, Moore's research group took advantage of the latest developments in spectroscopic technology viz the nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer (usually referred to as NMR) to study encephalitogenic peptides and proteins, especially myelin basic protein.

Moore's research pertained to the hypothetical relationship between myelin basic protein and multiple sclerosis. The basis for this hypothesis is explained as follows*:

................. Myelin basic protein is one of two major proteins found in the myelin of the central nervous system. In 1970, the journal Scientific American (vol 223, page 41) published illustrations of the results of pathological tests on specimens of tissue from the central nervous system of sufferers of multiple sclerosis; they show many nerve fibres without myelin sheaths.

................. Myelin consists of fats and proteins. Several layers of myelin form a protective sheath around the long fibre-like extension of the nerve cell known as the axon. Nerve axons respond to stimulation by propagating electrical impulses along their entire length. The non-conducting sheath of myelin is essential for this conduction process along the nerve axon.

................. Injection of myelin into suitable experimental animals produces antibodies as well as paralysis in the animals' extremities, a disease called experimental allergic encephalomyelitis. Pathological tests on tissue from the central nervous system of these animals reveal a loss of myelin from diseased animals. Such reactions by animals to injection are termed encephalitogenic responses; it was hoped that they would provide experimental models for the human disease multiple sclerosis.

This group of Moore's papers pertains to Moore's time at the University of Sydney; most is correspondence relating to Moore's research.

References used for this administrative history other than papers in this collection are:
Senate Minutes May 1973, vol 4 pages 334, 399;
Senate Minutes 1983, vol 10 page 1619.
"Whos Who in Australia", 1980.
____________________________________________________________________
*based on information in "Principles of Biochemistry" by E L Smith et al, McGraw Hill, Sydney 1983, pages 245, 261-264.