Wylie Vale - Telegraph Vale had begun his search for the elusive chemicals (which belong to a family known as neuropeptide hormones) in the mid-1960s as principal scientist in the laboratory run by Roger Guillemin, who was engaged in a bitter race with a team led by Andrew Schally to identify the hormones involved in different bodily functions. The race seemed to have ended in 1977 when Guillemin and Schally won a share of the Nobel Prize for Medicine for their achievements in identifying other neuropeptides. Before he elucidated the structure of CRH, however, Vale had established his own laboratory at the Salk Institute in direct competition with Guillemin, who had proved loth to share any of the glory for his laboratory's achievements with younger colleagues . At one point, as he was preparing to publish his research on GRF, Vale wrote a chemical formula, purporting to be that of the hormone, on a blackboard in his laboratory where it could be seen, through a window, by members of Guillemin's team. The formula, however, was inaccurate, designed to mislead his rival. Guillemin succeeded in finding the CRF and GRF hormones independently, but Vale had got there first. Wylie Walker Vale was born in Houston, Texas, on July 3 1941. He attended Rice University and, after graduation, joined Guillemin's laboratory, then at the Baylor College of Medicine, taking a doctorate in Physiology and Biochemistry in 1968. In 1970, Guillemin moved his team to the Salk Institute. Vale's research involved isolating the elusive neuropeptides from huge volumes of tissue from the hypothalamuses of sheep, brought in from nearby slaughterhouses. Before he left to set up his own laboratory in 1978, he had helped Guillemin identify thyrotropin releasing factor (TRF, a substance that switches on the chemicals which control the thyroid gland and the body's temperature control system) and played a central role in the discovery of the luteinizing hormone-releasing factor (LRF, responsible for switching on the chemicals that control the reproductive system), and somatostatin, a releasing factor hormone that inhibits the body's growth. As head of his own laboratory, Vale discovered more than a dozen neuropeptides and their signalling mechanisms, including a group known as the urocortins, thought to be behind such conditions as anorexia. He co-founded two biotech companies to develop the medical and therapeutic potential of his discoveries and worked in collaboration with others to develop drugs, known as receptor antagonists, capable of blocking or curbing the action of neuropeptides. Despite his early battles with Guillemin, Vale never lost his sense of humour. Once, when asked to describe the hormonal connection between sex and food, he observed that while, as body weight falls below what is needed to maintain the hypothalamus, sexual desire and fertility decline, "on the other hand, if weight increases, then it can become harder for one to find a partner." Vale is survived by his wife, Betty, and two daughters. Wylie Vale, born July 3 1941, died January 3 2012