Sir James Baddiley FRS FRSE (15 May 1918, in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

– 17 November 2008, in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

) was a British biochemist."Sir James Baddiley - Microbiologist behind vital research into bacterial cell walls" Obituary in ''The Guardian'' 29 January 2009, accessed 10 January 2012
/ref>

Early life and education

Baddiley was born and brought up in Manchester. His father was director of research at the ICI dyestuffs division in

Blackley Blackley is a suburban area of Manchester, England. Historically in Lancashire, it is approximately north of Manchester city centre, on the River Irk. History The hamlet of Blackley was mentioned in the Domesday Book. The name derives from ...

. He attended

Manchester Grammar School The Manchester Grammar School (MGS) in Manchester, England, is the largest independent school (UK), independent day school for boys in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1515 as a Grammar school#free tuition, free grammar school next to Manchester C ...

and

Manchester University , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

in 1937 to read chemistry obtaining a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

and MSc.Royal Society obituary accessed 11 January 2012
/ref> He was accepted as a PhD student by the Nobel prizewinner Alexander Todd.

Career

Todd's group did fundamental work on the chemistry of

nucleosides Nucleosides are glycosylamines that can be thought of as nucleotides without a phosphate group. A nucleoside consists simply of a nucleobase (also termed a nitrogenous base) and a five-carbon sugar ( ribose or 2'-deoxyribose) whereas a nucleot ...

nucleotides Nucleotides are organic molecules consisting of a nucleoside and a phosphate. They serve as monomeric units of the nucleic acid polymers – deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), both of which are essential biomolecules with ...

and

nucleic acids Nucleic acids are biopolymers, macromolecules, essential to all known forms of life. They are composed of nucleotides, which are the monomers made of three components: a 5-carbon sugar, a phosphate group and a nitrogenous base. The two main cl ...

. This formed the base for subsequent work on the role of these compounds in cell biology and heredity. In 1944 he moved with Todd to

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

and was awarded an ICI research fellowship. His work culminated in the first synthesis of

adenosine triphosphate Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is an organic compound that provides energy to drive many processes in living cells, such as muscle contraction, nerve impulse propagation, condensate dissolution, and chemical synthesis. Found in all known forms o ...

(ATP). He then joined the Wenner-Gren Institute (now th
Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research
in Stockholm with a fellowship from the Swedish Medical Research Council. Later at the

Lister Institute The Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, informally known as the Lister Institute, was established as a research institute (the British Institute of Preventive Medicine) in 1891, with bacteriologist Marc Armand Ruffer as its first director, u ...

in London he established the structure of several

nucleotide Nucleotides are organic molecules consisting of a nucleoside and a phosphate. They serve as monomeric units of the nucleic acid polymers – deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), both of which are essential biomolecule ...

coenzymes A cofactor is a non-protein chemical compound or metallic ion that is required for an enzyme's role as a catalyst (a catalyst is a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction). Cofactors can be considered "helper molecules" that ass ...

, in particular coenzyme A (CoA). He then attended Harvard with a Rockefeller fellowship. From 1954 to 1977 he was Professor of Organic Chemistry at King's College, University of Durham, now part of Newcastle University. From 1975 to 1983 he was Professor of Chemical Microbiology at Newcastle where he established the Microbiological Chemistry Research Laboratory (MCRL). The focus of his work was the biosynthesis, structure and biological function of various biochemical compounds, especially the discovery of

teichoic acids Teichoic acids (''cf.'' Greek τεῖχος, ''teīkhos'', "wall", to be specific a fortification wall, as opposed to τοῖχος, ''toīkhos'', a regular wall) are bacterial copolymers of glycerol phosphate or ribitol phosphate and carbohydr ...

, major components of cell wall structure of gram-positive bacteria. In 1981, Baddiley became a founding member of the

World Cultural Council The World Cultural Council is an international organization whose goals are to promote cultural values, goodwill and philanthropy among individuals. The organization founded in 1981 and based in Mexico, has held a yearly award ceremony since 198 ...

. After Newcastle he was awarded a senior research fellowship by the

Science and Engineering Research Council The Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) and its predecessor the Science Research Council (SRC) were the UK agencies in charge of publicly funded scientific and engineering research activities, including astronomy, biotechnology and bi ...

, and moved to the biochemistry department at Cambridge. This led to the establishment of the Institute of Biotechnology of which he was the first chairman and he was also appointed a fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge.

Awards

In 1961 he became a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

and in 1963 as Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was awarded the

Davy Medal The Davy Medal is awarded by the Royal Society of London "for an outstandingly important recent discovery in any branch of chemistry". Named after Humphry Davy, the medal is awarded with a monetary gift, initially of £1000 (currently £2000). H ...

in 1974 with the citation: ''In recognition of his distinguished researches on coenzyme A and studies of the constituents of bacterial cell walls''. He was knighted in 1977. Other awards were DSc (Manchester), ScD (

Cantab Cantab may refer to: * ''Cantab'' (magazine), produced by University of Cambridge students from 1981 to 1990 * Cantabrigian, a member of the University of Cambridge, a member or Alumnus of Harvard University, or a resident of Cambridge * Cantab ...

), and Honorary DSc's from Heriot-Watt University(1979) and also the

University of Bath (Virgil, Georgics II) , mottoeng = Learn the culture proper to each after its kind , established = 1886 (Merchant Venturers Technical College) 1960 (Bristol College of Science and Technology) 1966 (Bath University of Technology) 1971 (univ ...

(1986). For his work at Newcastle University on

, the recently built Baddiley-Clark building (housing bacterial cell biology research) was named in part after him.

Personal life

In 1944, married Hazel Townsend (d 2007) a textile designer. They had a son, Christopher.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baddiley, James Fellows of Pembroke College, Cambridge Knights Bachelor People educated at Manchester Grammar School Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Founding members of the World Cultural Council English biochemists Alumni of the University of Manchester 1918 births 2008 deaths