In 1953, Eddy joined the Brewing Industry Research Foundation in Nutfield.[1] Using snail gastric extracts Eddy, in 1957, was able to prepare protoplasts/sphaeroplasts of the yeast S. pastorianus; the ability to produce cell wall-free yeasts was important in facilitating much of later yeast research.[4] In 1959, he was appointed to the first chair of Biochemistry at UMIST; he oversaw the creation of the Department of Biochemistry from the previously existing Brewing Chemistry department.[5] He held this position until his retirement in 1994.[1] He was Emeritus Professor in the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Manchester until his death in 2017.[6]
Eddy's research interests were diverse, but his major contributions were in the biology of trans-membrane transport, in particular the functioning of proton pumps and symport systems.[7]
Personal life
Eddy lived in Disley, Cheshire with his wife Susan Ruth (née Slade-Jones), whom he married in 1954. They had two sons.[1]
^Eddy AA, Hopkins P, Shaw R Proton and charge circulation through substrate symports in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: non-classical behaviour of the cytosine symport. Symposia of the Society for Experimental Biology [1994, 48:123-139](PMID7597638)