Anne Simmonds

Hermione Anne Simmonds (6 December 1927 – 2 April 2010) was a New Zealand biochemist, who worked mostly in the United Kingdom. She was an expert in inborn errors of purine and pyrimidine metabolism, publishing more than 400 papers and book chapters. Simmonds was a co-founder of the Purine and Pyrimidine Society, the Purine Metabolic Patients' Association and the Association of Researchers in Medical Science.

New Zealand Simmonds was born on 6 December 1927 to Frederick Simmonds and Katherine Hermione Blundell, and was the middle of three sisters. She was raised on a farm in Kohukohu in New Zealand. The farm was remote and her primary education was by correspondence, before she attended Whangārei Girls’ High School. She studied organic chemistry, gaining a Bachelor of Science in 1948 and a Master of Science in 1949, both from the Auckland University College. This began Simmonds interest in pyrimidine metabolism, and she transferred to the biochemistry unit at Auckland Hospital, and began research to identify pyrimidines using anion exchange fractionation followed by thin layer chromatography. Simmonds collaborated with Francoise Roch-Ramel, and was friends with Gertrude Elion and George Hitchings through the Wellcome laboratory. The dedication noted her "outstanding contributions to the identification and study of inborn errors of purine and pyrimidine metabolism".

Selected works Books

Journal articles