The man who first discovered the structure of nucleic acids will be commemorated this evening in Cambridge.
The man who first discovered the structure of nucleic acids will be commemorated this evening in Cambridge.
The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) will mark the achievements of the great Scottish chemist Lord Todd, whose work made the DNA breakthrough of Francis Crick and James Watson possible, by unveiling a plaque at the Department of Chemistry on Lensfield Road at 5.30pm.
Alexander Todd was born in Glasgow on 2 October 1907. He was Professor of Organic Chemistry at Cambridge University and Fellow of Christ's College. At the University Todd discovered, by a series of chemical syntheses of great delicacy and subtlety, the structure of nucleic acids. This work opened the way for Watson and Crick’s discovery of the double helix and to understanding how complex genetic instructions could be coded.
This year is the 50th anniversary of a paper co-authored by Todd on the first chemical synthesis of a nucleotide, which is of major importance in the history of chemistry and molecular biology.
Dr Simon Campbell, RSC President, will present the plaque to the University to honour Lord Todd, one of its former Presidents and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1957 for his work on nucleotides and nucleotide co-enzymes.
The plaque is inscribed:
“Research in the Department of Chemistry at Cambridge over more than 50 years has established the structures and many principles of the synthesis of molecules that control the processes of life. Notably Lord Alexander Todd FRS and his co-workers invented the chemical synthesis of nucleotides which led to the elucidation of the chemical structure of DNA.”
The RSC, under its Historic Chemical Landmark scheme, selects each year two or three sites in the UK where pioneering work or outstanding work has been performed.
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