About: José Moura Gonçalves

José Moura Gonçalves (January 5, 1914– October 18,1996), Brazilian physician, biomedical scientist, biochemist and educator, one of the pioneers of biochemistry in the country. Moura Gonçalves studied medicine in Belo Horizonte. While a student, he began to work as an assistant in the laboratory of physiological chemistry of Professor (May 30, 1894-October 01,1967). After graduation, he accepted an invitation to work on the chemistry of proteins and enzymes at the , under noted scientist Carlos Chagas Filho. His post-doctoral work was carried out at University of Wisconsin–Madison, in the United States, where he produced what was his most important work, the isolation of a new toxic protein from the venom of rattlesnakes, which he named crotamine.