BALTIMORE, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- Hugo Moser, the doctor whose portrayal in "Lorenzo's Oil" parents said belied his character, died in Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Hospital of pancreatic cancer.
The neurologist, 82, was known as a compassionate researcher by parents of children with adrenoleukodystrophy, the Los Angeles Times said. Moser identified biochemical abnormalities in a family of genetic disorders, the best known of which is adrenoleukodystrophy, or ALD.
He and his wife, Ann Boody Moser, developed a screening test for diagnosing ALD, and were refining a test for newborns when he died, the Times said.
In the movie, Moser was portrayed as an arrogant physician who resisted efforts by Lorenzo's parents, Augusto and Michaela Odone, to develop a treatment for ALD.
Moser and Augusto Odone eventually reconciled and Odone was listed as a co-author of a paper demonstrating Lorenzo's oil provided some benefit in holding off the disease in boys who have not yet developed symptoms.
ALD affects the body's ability to dispose of certain chemicals that build up when food metabolizes. Lorenzo's oil is a mixture of oleic acid and erucic acid found in olive and rapeseed oils.
Moser, who died Saturday, is survived by his wife, three daughters, and four grandsons.
