Alison Todd is an Australian scientist who is holder of 18 patents (as at July 2019), and a co-founder and chief scientific officer of SpeeDx. The company manufactures and sells tests for detecting infectious pathogens and identifying

antibiotic resistance Antimicrobial resistance (AMR or AR) occurs when microbes evolve mechanisms that protect them from antimicrobials, which are drugs used to treat infections. This resistance affects all classes of microbes, including bacteria (antibiotic resis ...

. The biomedical company, co-founded by Todd, develops diagnostic tools. Todd mentors younger scientists and entrepreneurs, as well as advocating for greater gender diversity in leaders in STEM.

Career

Todd is the Chief Scientific Officer of SpeeDx, which is a molecular diagnostics company which she and Elisa Mokany started. Todd and Mokany have 18 patent families between them. They have brought 11 medical diagnostic tests for the management of clinical disease. Todd developed several novel molecular analytical technologies which have been used for basic research, preclinical/clinical drug development and in vitro diagnostics. Her expertise include nucleic acid chemistry, particularly target amplification and catalytic DNA technologies, and the biology of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

and viral diseases. Prior to founding SpeeDx, Todd was a Senior Research Director at

Johnson and Johnson Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and Medical device, medical technologies corporation headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and publi ...

Research Pty Limited, Sydney.

Research

Todd describes her "Eureka moment", "It all began when Elisa joined my group at Johnson & Johnson Research (JJR), we were already exploring ways to exploit DNAzymes (

deoxyribozyme Deoxyribozymes, also called DNA enzymes, DNAzymes, or catalytic DNA, are DNA oligonucleotides that are capable of performing a specific chemical reaction, often but not always catalytic. This is similar to the action of other biological enzymes, s ...

s) for diagnostic applications. These fascinating molecules are simple, short, synthetic DNA sequences (

oligonucleotide Oligonucleotides are short DNA or RNA molecules, oligomers, that have a wide range of applications in genetic testing, Recombinant DNA, research, and Forensic DNA, forensics. Commonly made in the laboratory by Oligonucleotide synthesis, solid-phase ...

s) that can catalyse reactions in a manner analogous to protein enzymes. Although catalytic RNA (

ribozyme Ribozymes (ribonucleic acid enzymes) are RNA molecules that have the ability to Catalysis, catalyze specific biochemical reactions, including RNA splicing in gene expression, similar to the action of protein enzymes. The 1982 discovery of ribozy ...

s) had been found in nature, catalytic DNA had not, and it had been assumed DNA would not have similar properties. However, a few years earlier, undeterred by dogma, Jerry Joyce and co-workers at Scripps had conducted ‘evolution in a test tube’".

Select publications

* Santoro, S., and Joyce, G. (1997) A general purpose RNA-cleaving SNA enzyme. ''Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci''. USA 94, 4262-4266. * Todd, A.V., ''et al.'' (2000) DzyNA-PCR: use of DNAzymes to detect and quantify nucleic acid sequences in a real-time fluorescent format ''Clin. Chem''. 46, 625-630. * Mokany, E., ''et al.'' (2010) MNAzymes, a Versatile New Class of Nucleic Acid Enzymes That Can Function as Biosensors and Molecular Switches ''J. Am. Chem. Soc.'' 132, 1051-1059. * Mokany, E., ''et al.'' (2013) MNAzyme qPCR with Superior Multiplexing Capacity ''Clin. Chem.'' 59, 419-426. Todd's publications can be found at (Google Scholar).

Awards and recognition

* Johnson & Johnson Philip B. Hofmann Research Scientist Award, *Todd was selected as one of the six ''Boss True Leaders Game Changers'' due to her research fighting superbugs. *Fellow of the

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering The Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE) is an independent learned academy that helps Australians understand and use technology to solve complex problems. History The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences was foun ...

(FTSE)

Media

2017 — Todd's work was referenced in ''

The Australian Financial Review The ''Australian Financial Review'' (''AFR'') is an Australian compact daily newspaper with a focus on business, politics and economic affairs. The newspaper is based in Sydney, New South Wales, and has been published continuously since its foun ...

'', where she was described as a 'frontline fighter in the war on superbugs'. 2017 — ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...

'' described the formation of Todd's company, as well as their concern that women were under-represented in STEMM, and the hiring and mentoring practices reflected in their company.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Todd, Alison Australian women scientists Living people Women biochemists Australian biochemists 21st-century women inventors Year of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering 21st-century Australian inventors University of Sydney alumni