19 February 1953
Prof. A. R. Todd
University Chemical Laboratory
Pembroke Street
Cambridge, England
Dear Alex:
I am glad to have your letter of 10 February. I am sure that you had a good time in India - I shall wait until I get to Cambridge,
in about six weeks to ask you about it.
I am glad that Bragg and Cochran feel that it will be all right for us to attack the problem of the structure of some of the
simple substances related to nucleic acids. Corey and I shall remember not to work on the phosphates of adenosine. Corey
and I agree, however, that the best substances for us to attack are the deoxyribonucleotides, as you recommend. We should
like very much to have samples of the 3' and 5' phosphates of thymidine and deoxycitidine, and then later, if you are successful
with the corresponding substances from deoxyadenosine and deoxyguanosine we should like to have them. I think that we shall
be able to put a post-doctorate man onto the study of these substances as soon as they arrive. We hope to have about three
post-doctoral people working on these problems by fall. Each investigation is a big job, but I think that it will be worth
while to carry out several of these structure determinations.
I shall look forward to seeing you and Alison early in April.
Sincerely yours,
Linus Pauling:W
