Mann, Thaddeus Robert Rudolph

Biographical and bibliographical material, notebooks and reprints on enzyme research, 1938-1954; photographs of the Molteno Institute of Biology and Parasitology, Cambridge, 1925-1960.

1938-1984

4 boxes

Professor Mann gave his reprints and additional papers to the Contemporary Medical Archives Centre in July 1984.

Details of his life and career are in Who's Who and a curriculum vitae can be found in the collection (Ref 2/1). The core of the collection are reprints on biological catalysts, cellular respiration and enzymes, published during the period 1925-60 by David Keilin, ScD,FRS (1887-1963) and his associates at the Molteno Institute of Biology and Parasitology. Professor Mann worked with him from 1935-42 on collaborated research into enzymology and cellular metabolism. "Together we succeeded in discovering the first enzyme-substrate reaction by demonstrating that peroxidase, the methaemoglobin-like plant enzyme, forms two distinct reaction products with hydrogen peroxide. We identified copper in the enzymes of polyphenol oxidase from mushrooms and laccase from the lacquer tree. We succeeded in isolating and crystallizing haemocuprein, the first copper-protein from mammalian blood-corpuscles, and we were the first to discover zinc in an enzyme, namely that of carbonic anhydrase from mallian blood." Some of his subsequent research was carried out at the Molteno Institute: 1942-44, metabolism of mould fungi; after 1944, metabolism of mammalian semen, discovery of fructose in semen and many other studies on the biochemistry of spermatozoa, male accessory secretions and male reproductive organs.

In 1991 additional biographical material and twelve laboratory notebooks recording research in physiology and biochemistry of reproduction, 1947-76, were given to Cambridge University Library via the National Cataloguing Unit for the Archives of Contemporary Scientists (NCUACS catalogue no 30/6/91 6pp)