The first-ever isolated alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) was purified in 1937 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker's yeast).[6] Many aspects of the catalytic mechanism for the horse liver ADH enzyme were investigated by Hugo Theorell and coworkers.[7] ADH was also one of the first oligomeric enzymes that had its amino acid sequence and three-dimensional structure determined.[8][9][10]
In early 1960, it was discovered in fruit flies of the genus Drosophila