The British biochemist Alexander Robertus Todd was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work on the synthesis of nucleotides (the small units that make up the larger molecule of nucleic acids), the hereditary material of cells. This work led to many important advances in chemistry and biochemistry and made it possible to study the application of the Watson-Crick model of DNA and other nucleic acids more effectively.
Todd, whose father was a businessman, was born on October 2, 1907, in Glasgow, Scotland. He attended Allan Glen's School in Glasgow before entering the University of Glasgow. In 1928, he received a BS degree in organic chemistry from the university and remained there 1 more year as a Carnegie Scholar. In 1929, he left Scotland to go to Germany for graduate work at the University of Frankfurt-on-Maine and in 1931 was awarded a PhD degree in natural sciences, with a dissertation on the chemistry of bile acids.
Todd entered the University of Oxford (England), from which he received a second PhD degree in 1933 for work on the synthesis of flower pigments. He returned to Scotland in 1934 and became a researcher in medical chemistry at the University of Edinburgh, where his first research subject was vitamin B1 (thiamine). In 1936, he joined the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine in London as a lecturer in biochemistry. He continued to work on the synthesis of vitamin B1 and also began to study the synthesis of vitamin E.
Todd remained in London for 2 years (1936-1938). He was then appointed as Sir Samuel Hall Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Chemical Laboratories at the University of Manchester (England). He completed his research on vitamin E and began studies on the constituents of hashish. During World War II (1939-1945), Todd interrupted his research and worked for the British government on the development of gases that could be used in chemical warfare. He remained in Manchester until 1944, when he joined the faculty of the University of Cambridge (England), where he was professor of chemistry from 1944 to 1978 and where his most important work was performed.
Todd began his work on vitamin B1 (thiamine) in 1934 while at the University of Edinburgh. While working on this project, he realized that thiamine and other B vitamins function as part of the nucleotides—which are compounds of phosphoric acid, a sugar, and a nitrogenous base—and also function as coenzymes in many chemical processes in the body. After his work on thiamine, Todd began to study the synthesis of nucleotides, for which he later received the Nobel Prize. He produced many nucleotides, ribose and deoxyribose sugars with purine and pyrimidine nitrogenous bases. This work led to an understanding of the sugar-base portion of nucleotides. His phosphorylation studies led to the controlled synthesis of nucleotides that function as coenzymes and are the building blocks of nucleic acids. Todd also synthesized adenosine triphosphate (1949), which is vital to energy utilization in living organisms, and he synthesized 2 other important compounds: flavin adenine dinucleotide in 1949 and uridine triphosphate in 1954. In 1955, he elucidated the structure of vitamin B12.
Sir Alexander Robertus Todd died in Cambridge on January 10, 1997, at the age of 89 years. Besides receiving the Nobel Prize, he was awarded many honors and honorary doctorates. From 1952 to 1964, while at the University of Cambridge, Todd served as chairman of the British government's advisory committee on scientific policy. In 1975, he was honored by being elected president of the prestigious Royal Society. He was knighted in 1954, created a life peer in 1962 (becoming Baron Todd of Trumpington), and made a member of the Royal Order of Merit in 1977. In 2002, the country of Guyana issued a stamp (Scott No. 3699a) to honor him as a Nobel laureate.