Alison Todd facts for kids

Alison Todd is an amazing Australian scientist. She has helped create 18 special inventions, called patents, by July 2019. She is also a co-founder and the chief scientist at a company called SpeeDx.

SpeeDx makes and sells important tests. These tests help find tiny germs that cause sickness, like bacteria or viruses. They also help figure out if these germs are resistant to antibiotics. This means if a medicine will work or not. Alison's company creates tools to help doctors diagnose diseases better. She also helps guide younger scientists and business owners. Alison believes it's important to have more women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) leadership roles.

Alison's Career Journey

Alison Todd is the Chief Scientific Officer at SpeeDx. She started this company with another scientist named Elisa Mokany. Together, Alison and Elisa have created 18 sets of patented inventions. They have also developed 11 medical tests that help manage different diseases.

Before starting SpeeDx, Alison worked as a Senior Research Director at Johnson and Johnson Research in Sydney. There, she developed many new ways to study tiny parts of cells. These methods were used for basic science, testing new medicines, and creating diagnostic tools. Alison is an expert in how DNA and RNA work, especially in making copies of them. She also knows a lot about cancer and diseases caused by viruses.

Her Big Discovery

Alison describes a special moment she calls her "Eureka moment." This is when she had a big breakthrough idea. It happened when Elisa Mokany joined her team at Johnson & Johnson Research. They were looking for ways to use special DNA molecules called DNAzymes for medical tests.

DNAzymes are short, simple pieces of DNA. They can act like tiny machines, speeding up chemical reactions. This is similar to how protein enzymes work in our bodies. People used to think that only RNA, another type of genetic material, could do this. But Alison and Elisa, inspired by other scientists, showed that DNA could also have these amazing abilities. They proved that DNA could be used to create new tools for finding diseases.

Awards and Special Recognition

Alison Todd has received several important awards for her work:

• She won the Johnson & Johnson Philip B. Hofmann Research Scientist Award.
• She was chosen as one of six "Boss True Leaders Game Changers." This was because of her important research in fighting "superbugs." Superbugs are germs that are very hard to kill with regular medicines.
• She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE). This is a high honor for scientists and engineers in Australia.

In the News

Alison's work has been featured in the news:

• In 2017, a newspaper called The Australian Financial Review wrote about her. They called her a "frontline fighter in the war on superbugs." This shows how important her work is in helping us fight tough infections.
• Also in 2017, The Sydney Morning Herald wrote about how Alison's company was formed. They also talked about how Alison and her company are concerned that not enough women work in STEM fields. They make sure to hire and support women in their company.