Career
He held the first chair of biochemistry in the United Kingdom, and founded the Biochemical Journal, one of the earliest academic journals in the subject. Educated at Queen"s College, Belfast and the Royal University of Ireland, Moore"s early positions were in the field of physiology at Yale University, Connecticut, United States of America and Charing Cross Hospital, London. When the first British department of biochemistry was founded at the University of Liverpool in 1902, after a donation from Liverpool shipowner William Johnston, Moore took up the Johnston Chair, the first chair of biochemistry in the United Kingdom. He is credited (in The Strategic Medical Alliances and the Foundation of the National Health Service) by Doctor Leslie Hilliard with the first use of the words "National Health Service" and the foundation of the State Medical Service Association.
During the First World War, he worked for the Medical Research Council in London.
He became a professor of biochemistry at the University of Oxford in 1920. Moore was central to the early development of the field of biochemistry in the United Kingdom. He founded the Biochemical Journal in 1906, with financial assistance from his research assistant, Edward Whitley.
Although the two sold the Biochemical Journal to the Biochemical Club (later the Biochemical Society) in 1912, Moore retained his interest in the new journal, remaining on the editorial committee until 1921 and publishing further papers in lieutenant In 1911, he was one of the founders of the Biochemical Society.
Moore for many years studied the molecular physics and structure of the organism, he came to reject mechanist and materialist explanations for the organism but also opposed idealistic and spiritualist explanations.
Instead he developed a theory of "biotic energy" which he discussed in his books The Origin and Nature of Life (1913) and Biochemistry (1921). Similar to the vitalists he claimed that there was an energy in living bodies which could not be described in terms of physics and chemistry. John Burroughs was supportive of his biotic energy theory.