Professor Duilio Arigoni, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, passed away on June 10, 2020. He was well-known for his work on the stereochemistry of enzyme-mediated reactions and on the biosynthesis of natural products such as vitamin B12.
Duilio Arigoni was born on December 6, 1928, in Lugano, Switzerland. He studied chemistry at ETH Zurich, where he received his Ph.D. in 1955 under the supervision of Oskar Jeger. He spent his entire career at ETH, first as a Lecturer in 1961, then as an Associate Professor starting in 1962, and finally as Full Professor of Special Organic Chemistry from 1967 until his retirement in 1996. He was a Visiting Professor at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA, the University of Cambridge, UK, and Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Among many other honors, Arigoni received the Davy Medal of the Royal Society, UK, in 1983, the Welch Award in Chemistry in 1985, the Arthur C. Cope Award from the American Chemical Society (ACS) in 1986, the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 1989, and the Marcel Benoist Prize in 1991. He was a Member of the German Academy of Science Leopoldina, the Academia Europaea, and the Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze, Italy. He also was an Honorary Member of the Swiss Chemical Society (SCS), the Societé Chimique de France (SCF, French Chemical Society), the Società Chimica Italiana (SCI, Italian Chemical Society), the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and the American Association of Arts and Sciences, as well as a Foreign Member of the Royal Society, London, UK, and a Foreign Associate of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
Selected Publications
- Terpenoid biosynthesis from 1-deoxy-D-xylulose in higher plants by intramolecular skeletal rearrangement,
D. Arigoni, S. Sagner, C. Latzel, W. Eisenreich, A. Bacher, M. H. Zenk,
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 1997, 94, 10600–10605.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.94.20.10600 - The deoxyxylulose phosphate pathway of terpenoid biosynthesis in plants and microorganisms,
W. Eisenreich l, M. Schwarz, A. Cartayrade, D. Arigoni, M. H. Zenk, A. Bacherl,
Chem. Biol. 1998, 5, R221–R233.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S1074-5521(98)90002-3 - Studies on the nonmevalonate pathway to terpenes: The role of the GcpE (IspG) protein,
S. Hecht, W. Eisenreich, P. Adam, S. Amslinger, K. Kis, A. Bacher, D. Arigoni, F. Rohdich,
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2001, 98, 14837–14842.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.201399298 - Studies on the nonmevalonate terpene biosynthetic pathway: Metabolic role of IspH (LytB) protein,
F. Rohdich, S. Hecht, K. Gartner, P. Adam, C. Krieger, S. Amslinger, D. Arigoni, A. Bacher, W. Eisenreich,
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2002, 99, 1158–1163.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.032658999 - The deoxyxylulose phosphate pathway of isoprenoid biosynthesis: Studies on the mechanisms of the reactions catalyzed by IspG and IspH protein,
F. Rohdich, F. Zepeck, P. Adam, S. Hecht, J. Kaiser, R. Laupitz, T. Grawert, S. Amslinger, W. Eisenreich, A. Bacher, D. Arigoni,
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2003, 100, 1586–1591.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0337742100 - Evidence for the Combined Participation of a C10 and a C15 Precursor in the Biosynthesis of Moenocinol, the Lipid Part of the Moenomycin Antibiotics,
I. Neundorf, C. Köhler, L. Hennig, M. Findeisen, D. Arigoni, P. Welzel,
ChemBioChem 2003, 4, 1201–1205.
https://doi.org/10.1002/cbic.200300622 - Biosynthesis of isoprenoids via the non-mevalonate pathway,
W. Eisenreich, A. Bacher, D. Arigoni, F. Rohdich,
Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 2004.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-004-3381-z
Also of Interest
- “Chemiker müssen Lust am Abenteuer haben!” – Interview mit Duilio Arigoni, neues Ehrenmitglied der SCG (in German),
CHIMIA 2010, 64, 239–274.
https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2010.269
