Todd, Alexander Robertus (1907-1997)

Scottish organic chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1957 for his work on the role of nucleic acids in genetics. He also synthesized vitamins B1, B12, and E. He was knighted in 1954 and became baron in 1962.

Todd was born in Glasgow and studied there and in Germany at Frankfurt. He was professor at Manchester 1938-44 and Cambridge 1944-71.

He began his work on the synthesis of organic molecules in 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.