Alison Todd

Alison Todd is an Australian scientist who is holder of 18 patents (as at July 2019), and a co-founder and chief scientific officer of SpeeDx. The company manufactures and sells tests for detecting infectious pathogens and identifying antibiotic resistance. The biomedical company, co-founded by Todd, develops diagnostic tools. Todd mentors younger scientists and entrepreneurs, as well as advocating for greater gender diversity in leaders in STEM.

Career Todd is the Chief Scientific Officer of SpeeDx, which is a molecular diagnostics company which she and Elisa Mokany started. Todd and Mokany have 18 patent families between them. They have brought 11 medical diagnostic tests for the management of clinical disease.

Select publications Santoro, S., and Joyce, G. (1997) A general purpose RNA-cleaving SNA enzyme. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94, 4262-4266. Todd, A.V., et al. (2000) DzyNA-PCR: use of DNAzymes to detect and quantify nucleic acid sequences in a real-time fluorescent format Clin. Chem. 46, 625-630. Mokany, E., et al. (2010) MNAzymes, a Versatile New Class of Nucleic Acid Enzymes That Can Function as Biosensors and Molecular Switches J. Am. Chem. Soc. 132, 1051-1059. Mokany, E., et al. (2013) MNAzyme qPCR with Superior Multiplexing Capacity Clin. Chem. 59, 419-426.

Todd's publications can be found at (Google Scholar).

Awards and recognition

Johnson & Johnson Philip B. Hofmann Research Scientist Award, Todd was selected as one of the six Boss True Leaders Game Changers due to her research fighting superbugs.

Media 2017 — Todd's work was referenced in The Australian Financial Review, where she was described as a 'frontline fighter in the war on superbugs'.

2017 — The Sydney Morning Herald described the formation of Todd's company, as well as their concern that women were under-represented in STEMM, and the hiring and mentoring practices reflected in their company.