Scottish organic chemist
who won a Nobel prize 1957 for his work on the role of nucleic acids in
genetics. He also synthesized vitamins B1, B12, and E. Todd was born in
Glasgow and studied there and in Germany at Frankfurt. He was professor
at Manchester 1938-44 and Cambridge 1944-71.
Todd began his work on the synthesis of organic molecules 1934 with vitamin
B1. In the late 1940s and early 1950s he worked on nucleotides; he synthesized
adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and adenosine diphosphate (ADP), the key
substances in generating energy in the body. He developed new methods
for the synthesis of all the major nucleotides and their related coenzymes,
and established in detail the chemical structures of the nucleic acids,
such as DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), the hereditary material of cell nuclei.
During the course of this work, which provided the essential basis for
further developments in the fields of genetics and of protein synthesis
in living cells, Todd also devised an approach to the synthesis of the
nucleic acids themselves. |