Catalogue description Catalogue of the papers of DONALD DEVEREUX WOODS, FRS. (1912 - 1964) Microbiologist

A. Biographical and personal CSAC 64.2.79/A.1 - CSAC 64.2.79/A.13

B. Laboratory notebooks and working papers CSAC 64.2.79/B.1 - CSAC 64.2.79/B.35

Ipswich School 1926 CSAC 64.2.79/B.1 - CSAC 64.2.79/B.2

Cambridge University 1930-39 CSAC 64.2.79/B.3 - CSAC 64.2.79/B.19

Bland-Sutton Institute, Middlesex Hospital, London 1939-41 CSAC 64.2.79/B.20 - CSAC 64.2.79/B.21

Chemical Defence Research Establishment, Portan Down 1942-45 CSAC 64.2.79/B.22 - CSAC 64.2.79/B.26

Oxford University 1946-64 CSAC 64.2.79/B.27 - CSAC 64.2.79/B.35

C. Scientific lectures and papers 1946-62 CSAC 64.2.79/C.1 - CSAC 64.2.79/C.17

D. Correspondence CSAC 64.2.79/D.1 - CSAC 64.2.79/D.2

Index of correspondents

The collection includes a full set of Woods's laboratory notebooks for his work in Cambridge 1933-39 on bacterial metabolism (CSAC 64.2.79/B.3 - CSAC 64.2.79/B.19), and less complete but still useful material documenting his later research at Oxford on folic acid and B12 (CSAC 64.2.79/B.27 - CSAC 64.2.79/B.35). There is very little correspondence, most of which was destroyed after Woods's death in 1964.

Woods is best known for his determining in 1939 of p-aminobenzoic acid (PAB) as an anti-sulphanilomide factor; this work is documented in CSAC 64.2.79/C.15 - CSAC 64.2.79/C.17, which assembles the original laboratory notes and other contemporary records as they were used by Woods for a historical lecture at Oxford in 1961. See also CSAC 64.2.79/B.21.

The Collection also includes some material relating to Dr. Marjory Stephenson FRS, who inspired Woods's interest in biochemistry and supervised his early research. See the Index of Correspondents. There is also a little material relating to Sir Paul Fildes FRS, to whom in 1939 Dr. Stephenson recommended Woods to work at the M.R.C. Unit in Bacterial Chemistry at the Bland-Sutton Institute, Middlesex Hospital, where his work on PAB was carried out. Unfortunately, none of Fildes's own papers have been traced, but CSAC 64.2.79/D.1 includes three letters written to Fildes by Paul Erlich in 1912, on Salvarsan. These short communications refer distantly to the clinical trials of Erlich's new drug Salvarsan (606) in the treatment of syphilis, conducted by McIntosh and Fildes, and subsequent publications and controversy. See CSAC 64.2.79/D.1 for a note and reference to the letters.

Compiled by: Jeannine Alton

Julia Latham-Jackson

The help of Dr. M.A. Foster and Dr. M.G. Ord in identifying and describing documents is very gratefully acknowledged. Several of Dr. Foster's descriptions are incorporated, with acknowledgement, in the entries below.

For a more detailed account of Woods's research, see the Memoir by E.F. Gale and P.G. Fildes (Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 11, 1965, pp.203-219) a copy of which is included in CSAC 64.2.79/A.1. Woods's own account of his career and work to date appears in his application for the Whitley Professorship of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, in CSAC 64.2.79/A.7

Woods, Donald Devereux, 1912-1964, microbiologist

The material was received from Mrs.A. Woods (widow), and from Woods's colleagues and secretary at Oxford.

The letters from P. Erlich to Sir Paul Fildes (CSAC 64.2.79/D.1) were received from Miss A. Pearce-Gervis.

• Microbiology

b.1912 Ipswich

educ. Northgate School, Ipswich

1930 - 33 Trinity Hall, Cambridge

1933 - 39 Research with Dr. Marjory Stephenson at Sir William Dunn School of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge

Work on indole production, and bacterial metabolism

1936 - 39 Beit Memorial Research Fellow, University of Cambridge

1937 Ph.D., Cambridge

1939 Married Alison L. Woods (nee Halls)

1939 - 40 Halley-Stewart Research Fellow, Medical Research Council Unit for Bacterial Chemistry (Director: Sir Paul Fildes), Bland-Sutton Institute, Middlesex Hospital'

Determination of p-aminobenzoic acid (PAB) as antisulphanilamide factor

1940 - 45 Member of scientific staff, Medical Research Council, seconded to Biology Section, Chemical Defence Research Establishment, Ministry of Supply (Porton Down)

1945 Demonstrator, Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford

1946 - 55 Reader in Microbiology, Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford

Work on folic acid, and metabolism of PAB

1951 Guinness Research Fellow, Trinity College, Oxford

1955 - 64 Iveagh Professor of Chemical Microbiology, Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford (first holder of the Chair)

• View Record