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
