Matthew Houghton Todd (born 13 January 1973) is a British

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

and the Professor and Chair of

Drug Discovery In the fields of medicine, biotechnology, and pharmacology, drug discovery is the process by which new candidate medications are discovered. Historically, drugs were discovered by identifying the active ingredient from traditional remedies or ...

of the

School of Pharmacy A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of fo ...

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

. He is the founder of Open Source Malaria (OSM) and his research focuses on

drug discovery In the fields of medicine, biotechnology, and pharmacology, drug discovery is the process by which new candidate medications are discovered. Historically, drugs were discovered by identifying the active ingredient from traditional remedies or ...

and development for this disease. Recently, he has expanded to other areas, particularly neglected diseases such as

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

and

mycetoma Mycetoma is a chronic infection Subcutaneous tissue, in the skin caused by either bacteria (actinomycetoma) or fungi (eumycetoma), typically resulting in a triad of painless firm skin lumps, the formation of weeping sinus (anatomy), sinuses, and ...

in the Open Source Tuberculosis (OSTB) and Open Source Mycetoma (MycetOS) project, through a collaboration with the

Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) is a collaborative, patients' needs-driven, non-profit drug research and development (R&D) organization that is developing new treatments for neglected tropical diseases, neglected diseases, notab ...

and

Erasmus MC Erasmus University Medical Center (Erasmus MC or EMC) is a teaching hospital based in Rotterdam, Netherlands, affiliated with Erasmus University and home to its faculty of medicine. It is the largest and one of the most authoritative scientific uni ...

. In addition, he has some research activity in

catalysis Catalysis () is the increase in rate of a chemical reaction due to an added substance known as a catalyst (). Catalysts are not consumed by the reaction and remain unchanged after it. If the reaction is rapid and the catalyst recycles quick ...

and

methodology In its most common sense, methodology is the study of research methods. However, the term can also refer to the methods themselves or to the philosophical discussion of associated background assumptions. A method is a structured procedure for bri ...

Education

Todd received an MA in

Natural Sciences Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

from the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

in 1995. He obtained his PhD in

Organic Chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the science, scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic matter, organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain ...

at the same institution in 1999, working with Chris Abell on encoding and linker strategies for

combinatorial chemistry Combinatorial chemistry comprises chemical synthesis, chemical synthetic methods that make it possible to prepare a large number (tens to thousands or even millions) of compounds in a single process. These compound library, compound libraries can b ...

. Todd was a

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of Burroughs Wellcome, one of the predec ...

Postdoctoral Research Fellow A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a Doctor of Philosophy, PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, h ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

from 1999 to 2000, working with Paul A. Bartlett on synthesis of amino acid-derived heterocycles by

Lewis acid catalysis In organic chemistry, Lewis acid catalysis is the use of metal-based Lewis acids as catalysts for organic reactions. The acids act as an Electron acceptor, electron pair acceptor to increase the Reactivity (chemistry), reactivity of a Substrate ( ...

and radical cyclisations from peptide acetals.

Career and research

From 2000 to 2001, he was a College Fellow and Lecturer at New Hall, Cambridge (now

Murray Edwards College, Cambridge Murray Edwards College is a women-only constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It was founded in 1954 as New Hall and renamed in 2008. The name honours a gift of £30 million by alumna Ros Edwards and her husband Steve, and the firs ...

). He began his independent research career in 2001 at

Queen Mary University of London Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, or informally QM, and formerly Queen Mary and Westfield College) is a public university, public research university in Mile End, East London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University ...

. In 2005, he relocated to Australia where he was a lecturer, senior lecturer, then

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

at the School of Chemistry,

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

. In 2018, he returned to the United Kingdom to take the role of professor and Chair of Drug Discovery at UCL

. In response to the price hike of

HIV/AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

drug,

pyrimethamine Pyrimethamine, sold under the brand name Daraprim among others, is a medication used with leucovorin (leucovorin is used to decrease side effects of pyrimethamine; it does not have intrinsic anti-parasitic activity) to treat the parasitic disea ...

(Daraprim), by

Turing Pharmaceuticals Vyera Pharmaceuticals (formerly Turing Pharmaceuticals) is a pharmaceutical company incorporated in Zug, Switzerland, with offices in New York City. The company started to do business in the US as Vyera Pharmaceuticals in September 2017. The co ...

, Todd and the Open Source Malaria team led a small team of high school students from

Sydney Grammar School Sydney Grammar School (SGS, colloquially known as Grammar) is an independent, non-denominational day school for boys, located in Sydney, Australia. Incorporated in 1854 by an Act of Parliament and opened in 1857, the school claims to offer "c ...

to synthesise the drug. The students produced 3.7 grams of

for US$20, which would be worth between US$35,000 and US$110,000 in the United States based on hiked prices. This received significant media attention and was featured on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

, and

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

. Todd has been a vocal proponent of

open science Open science is the movement to make scientific research (including publications, data, physical samples, and software) and its dissemination accessible to all levels of society, amateur or professional. Open science is transparent and accessib ...

and

open research Open research is research that is openly accessible by others. Those who publish research in this way are often concerned with making research more transparent, more collaborative, more wide-reaching, and more efficient. Open research aims to ma ...

. In 2011, he proposed Six Laws of Open Research to guide present and future open research projects including OSM and MycetOS: Todd is on the

Editorial board The editorial board is a group of editors, writers, and other people who are charged with implementing a publication's approach to editorials and other opinion pieces. The editorials published normally represent the views or goals of the publicat ...

s of Chemistry Central Journal, ChemistryOpen, PLOS One,

Scientific Reports ''Scientific Reports'' is a peer-reviewed open-access scientific mega journal published by Nature Portfolio, covering all areas of the natural sciences. The journal was established in 2011. The journal states that their aim is to assess solely ...

, and

Scientific Data Data ( , ) are a collection of discrete or continuous values that convey information, describing the quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted formally ...

Honours and awards

* 2011 – NSW Premier's Prize for Science & Engineering (Emerging Research) * 2012 –

/Google/

PLOS PLOS (for Public Library of Science; PLoS until 2012) is a nonprofit publisher of open-access journals in science, technology, and medicine and other scientific literature, under an open-content license. It was founded in 2000 and launched it ...

Accelerating Science Award * 2014 –

Blue Obelisk Blue Obelisk is an informal group of chemists who promote open data, Open-source model, open source, and open standards; it was initiated by Peter Murray-Rust and others in 2005. Multiple open source cheminformatics projects associate themselves w ...

Award * 2017 – Medicine Maker Power List * 2018 – Medicine Maker Power List * 2019 – Medicine Maker Power List * 2020 – Medicine Maker Power List * 2021 – Medicine Maker Power List

References

External links

Matthew H. Todd
on Twitter
Matthew H. Todd
on

ORCID The ORCID (; Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a nonproprietary alphanumeric code to uniquely identify authors and contributors of scholarly communication. This addresses the problem that a particular author's contributions to the scien ...

Matthew H. Todd
on

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of Academic publishing, scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in Beta release, beta in November 2004, th ...

Open Source Malaria

Open Source Malaria
on

GitHub GitHub () is a Proprietary software, proprietary developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code. It uses Git to provide distributed version control and GitHub itself provides access control, bug trackin ...

Open Source Malaria
on Twitter
Open Source Mycetoma
on

Open Source Mycetoma
on

Reddit Reddit ( ) is an American Proprietary software, proprietary social news news aggregator, aggregation and Internet forum, forum Social media, social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to the ...

Open Source Mycetoma
on Twitter
Open Source Pharma

Open Source Tuberculosis

Open Source Tuberculosis
on

Open Source Tuberculosis
on Twitter {{DEFAULTSORT:Todd, Matthew H. British organic chemists English chemists Living people 1973 births Alumni of the University of Cambridge Academics of University College London Academics of Queen Mary University of London People associated with the UCL School of Pharmacy

Education

Career and research

Honours and awards

See also

References

External links