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Robert Edwards dies at 87; Nobel winner for first 'test-tube baby'
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Matthew Kruk
Apr 10, 2013, 6:09:33 PM4/10/13
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http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-robert-edwards-20130411,0,1794828.story
Robert Edwards dies at 87; Nobel winner for first 'test-tube baby'
Biologist Robert Edwards helped pioneer in vitro fertilization, eventually
giving an infertile British couple their daughter, Louise Brown, and millions
more children to parents worldwide.
By Thomas H. Maugh II, Special to the Times
2:13 PM PDT, April 10, 2013
About 10% of married couples suffer from infertility - the inability to conceive
a child naturally. Through the better part of the 20th century, physicians
considered this a minor and, perhaps, irrelevant problem, one that contributed
overall to society by keeping the birthrate down.
British biologist Robert Edwards thought differently. He was among the first to
fully appreciate the frustration, and depression, the condition engendered in
its victims and the benefits that could arise from reversing it.
Along the way, he met resistance from religious conservatives who insisted that
life must begin only through intercourse, not artificially, and from fellow
scientists who resented the fact that he spoke frequently with the media about
both his research and the ethical implications.
On July 25, 1978, after two decades of intensive research, Edwards and his
colleague, Dr. Patrick Steptoe, announced the birth of Louise Joy Brown, the
first infant born from an egg fertilized outside the human body. That seminal
event, the world's first "test-tube baby," triggered the age of in vitro
fertilization (IVF), a process that has led to more than 5 million births
worldwide and dramatically altered the reproductive landscape.
Today, about 350,000 IVF babies are born each year to infertile couples, single
people and gay and lesbian couples. The technique also allows for
preimplantation genetic diagnosis, in which potential birth defects are
identified before the fertilized egg is implanted.
The feat won Edwards the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine - Steptoe
died in 1988 and was thus ineligible - and a 2011 knighthood "for services to
human reproductive biology."
Edwards died in his sleep Wednesday at his home near Cambridge, England,
following a long illness, according to officials at the University of Cambridge,
where he worked in the department of physiology. He was 87.
To the layman, IVF might seem no more complicated than adding sperm to an egg in
a petri dish and then implanting the resulting embryo in either the mother or a
surrogate. But Edwards and his colleagues had to overcome a variety of
scientific obstacles before their work bore fruit.
As early as 1935, researchers had shown that a fertilized rabbit egg could pass
through the early stages of growth in vitro, and by 1959 it had been shown that
such eggs could be implanted in a female rabbit and produce viable embryos. But
human eggs proved much more difficult.
The first problem was obtaining eggs. Working with mice, Edwards' team showed
that females could be induced to release many eggs simultaneously by the
injection of certain hormones, a process known as super-ovulation. They then
showed that the same phenomenon could occur in humans, overturning the previous
belief that super-ovulation was impossible in human females.
Mammalian eggs must reach a certain stage of maturity before they can be
fertilized by a sperm. Previous researchers had shown that this maturation could
occur in vitro for eggs from mice and other small animals, but they failed to
observe it with human eggs. Eventually, Edwards deduced that human eggs simply
took two or three times as long as mouse eggs to mature in petri dishes.
Another problem lies with the sperm. Many researchers had shown that sperm has
to be activated, or "capacitated," in the uterus before it can penetrate the
egg. For a time, Edwards' team thought they might have to retrieve capacitated
sperm from the uterus to achieve IVF, but he and graduate student Barry Bavister
eventually demonstrated that the sperm could be activated by increasing the
alkalinity of the growth medium in the laboratory.
The potential need to recover sperm from the uterus led Edwards to contact
Steptoe, one of the pioneers in the then-emerging field of laparoscopic surgery.
Such surgery uses thin tubes and small television cameras and tools to probe
inside the human body with minimal incisions, manipulating organs and collecting
tissue samples.
That proved to be the crucial technique for safely collecting eggs from women,
replacing previous approaches which relied primarily on ovarian tissue taken
from infertile women in biopsies.
By 1969, the team had published a paper in the scientific journal Nature showing
that human eggs could be fertilized in vitro and that some - two of 56 - could
begin to mature. But the nature of his work and Edwards' extensive interactions
with the media offended the scientific establishment, and he was unable to
obtain grants. Most of his work for the next decade was supported by private
funding.
In 1971, Edwards and lawyer Dave Sharpe published a seminal paper in Nature
outlining the ethical issues involved in IVF research and the pros and cons
associated with various regulatory responses to it. He clearly foresaw many of
the objections to the work that would arise, but chose to continue anyway.
Edwards and Steptoe began implanting fertilized eggs in women in the early
1970s, but more than 100 initial attempts resulted in spontaneous abortions.
Eventually, they realized that the hormone treatments given to women to induce
super-ovulation and early maturation of eggs were disturbing hormonal balances,
producing the stillbirths.
Eventually, the pair decided to collect a single egg that had matured naturally
and attempt to fertilize it.
In November 1977, a young couple named Lesley and John Brown came to Edwards and
Steptoe after nine fruitless years trying to become pregnant. Using their newly
refined techniques, the team collected, fertilized and implanted an egg in
Lesley Brown and on July 25 of the following year, she gave birth to Louise via
a caesarian section. The infant proved to be in perfect health, much to
everyone's relief.
On July 4, 1979, the second test-tube baby, Alistair MacDonald, was born, but
skeptical funding agencies continued to refuse funds for research.
Using private donations, Edwards and Steptoe established the Bourn Hall Clinic,
the world's first IVF center, on the outskirts of Cambridge. By 1986, more than
1,000 babies had been born via IVF at Bourn Hall and a similar number in the
rest of the world.
Robert Geoffrey Edwards was born Sept. 27, 1925, in the Yorkshire mill town of
Batley, where his mother was a machinist. His family moved to Manchester when he
was 5 but spent summers in the Yorkshire Dales, where young Bob worked on farms
and developed a love for animals.
When he finished high school in 1943, he was drafted into the British Army,
where he spent four years, becoming a commissioned officer. In 1948, he enrolled
in agricultural sciences at the University College of North Wales at Bangor, but
after two years found the course work unscientific and boring. He transferred to
zoology and earned his degree in 1951. He then went to Edinburgh University to
receive his advanced degree in animal genetics.
He spent a year of postgraduate work at Caltech, then joined the National
Institute for Medical Research in London in 1958. He left in 1962 after the
institute's director banned any work in human IVF, spending a year in Glasgow
before joining Cambridge University.
Edwards is survived by his wife, the former Ruth Fowler; five daughters; and 11
grandchildren.
news....@latimes.com
Copyright � 2013, Los Angeles Times
Robert Edwards dies at 87; Nobel winner for first 'test-tube baby'
Biologist Robert Edwards helped pioneer in vitro fertilization, eventually
giving an infertile British couple their daughter, Louise Brown, and millions
more children to parents worldwide.
By Thomas H. Maugh II, Special to the Times
2:13 PM PDT, April 10, 2013
About 10% of married couples suffer from infertility - the inability to conceive
a child naturally. Through the better part of the 20th century, physicians
considered this a minor and, perhaps, irrelevant problem, one that contributed
overall to society by keeping the birthrate down.
British biologist Robert Edwards thought differently. He was among the first to
fully appreciate the frustration, and depression, the condition engendered in
its victims and the benefits that could arise from reversing it.
Along the way, he met resistance from religious conservatives who insisted that
life must begin only through intercourse, not artificially, and from fellow
scientists who resented the fact that he spoke frequently with the media about
both his research and the ethical implications.
On July 25, 1978, after two decades of intensive research, Edwards and his
colleague, Dr. Patrick Steptoe, announced the birth of Louise Joy Brown, the
first infant born from an egg fertilized outside the human body. That seminal
event, the world's first "test-tube baby," triggered the age of in vitro
fertilization (IVF), a process that has led to more than 5 million births
worldwide and dramatically altered the reproductive landscape.
Today, about 350,000 IVF babies are born each year to infertile couples, single
people and gay and lesbian couples. The technique also allows for
preimplantation genetic diagnosis, in which potential birth defects are
identified before the fertilized egg is implanted.
The feat won Edwards the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine - Steptoe
died in 1988 and was thus ineligible - and a 2011 knighthood "for services to
human reproductive biology."
Edwards died in his sleep Wednesday at his home near Cambridge, England,
following a long illness, according to officials at the University of Cambridge,
where he worked in the department of physiology. He was 87.
To the layman, IVF might seem no more complicated than adding sperm to an egg in
a petri dish and then implanting the resulting embryo in either the mother or a
surrogate. But Edwards and his colleagues had to overcome a variety of
scientific obstacles before their work bore fruit.
As early as 1935, researchers had shown that a fertilized rabbit egg could pass
through the early stages of growth in vitro, and by 1959 it had been shown that
such eggs could be implanted in a female rabbit and produce viable embryos. But
human eggs proved much more difficult.
The first problem was obtaining eggs. Working with mice, Edwards' team showed
that females could be induced to release many eggs simultaneously by the
injection of certain hormones, a process known as super-ovulation. They then
showed that the same phenomenon could occur in humans, overturning the previous
belief that super-ovulation was impossible in human females.
Mammalian eggs must reach a certain stage of maturity before they can be
fertilized by a sperm. Previous researchers had shown that this maturation could
occur in vitro for eggs from mice and other small animals, but they failed to
observe it with human eggs. Eventually, Edwards deduced that human eggs simply
took two or three times as long as mouse eggs to mature in petri dishes.
Another problem lies with the sperm. Many researchers had shown that sperm has
to be activated, or "capacitated," in the uterus before it can penetrate the
egg. For a time, Edwards' team thought they might have to retrieve capacitated
sperm from the uterus to achieve IVF, but he and graduate student Barry Bavister
eventually demonstrated that the sperm could be activated by increasing the
alkalinity of the growth medium in the laboratory.
The potential need to recover sperm from the uterus led Edwards to contact
Steptoe, one of the pioneers in the then-emerging field of laparoscopic surgery.
Such surgery uses thin tubes and small television cameras and tools to probe
inside the human body with minimal incisions, manipulating organs and collecting
tissue samples.
That proved to be the crucial technique for safely collecting eggs from women,
replacing previous approaches which relied primarily on ovarian tissue taken
from infertile women in biopsies.
By 1969, the team had published a paper in the scientific journal Nature showing
that human eggs could be fertilized in vitro and that some - two of 56 - could
begin to mature. But the nature of his work and Edwards' extensive interactions
with the media offended the scientific establishment, and he was unable to
obtain grants. Most of his work for the next decade was supported by private
funding.
In 1971, Edwards and lawyer Dave Sharpe published a seminal paper in Nature
outlining the ethical issues involved in IVF research and the pros and cons
associated with various regulatory responses to it. He clearly foresaw many of
the objections to the work that would arise, but chose to continue anyway.
Edwards and Steptoe began implanting fertilized eggs in women in the early
1970s, but more than 100 initial attempts resulted in spontaneous abortions.
Eventually, they realized that the hormone treatments given to women to induce
super-ovulation and early maturation of eggs were disturbing hormonal balances,
producing the stillbirths.
Eventually, the pair decided to collect a single egg that had matured naturally
and attempt to fertilize it.
In November 1977, a young couple named Lesley and John Brown came to Edwards and
Steptoe after nine fruitless years trying to become pregnant. Using their newly
refined techniques, the team collected, fertilized and implanted an egg in
Lesley Brown and on July 25 of the following year, she gave birth to Louise via
a caesarian section. The infant proved to be in perfect health, much to
everyone's relief.
On July 4, 1979, the second test-tube baby, Alistair MacDonald, was born, but
skeptical funding agencies continued to refuse funds for research.
Using private donations, Edwards and Steptoe established the Bourn Hall Clinic,
the world's first IVF center, on the outskirts of Cambridge. By 1986, more than
1,000 babies had been born via IVF at Bourn Hall and a similar number in the
rest of the world.
Robert Geoffrey Edwards was born Sept. 27, 1925, in the Yorkshire mill town of
Batley, where his mother was a machinist. His family moved to Manchester when he
was 5 but spent summers in the Yorkshire Dales, where young Bob worked on farms
and developed a love for animals.
When he finished high school in 1943, he was drafted into the British Army,
where he spent four years, becoming a commissioned officer. In 1948, he enrolled
in agricultural sciences at the University College of North Wales at Bangor, but
after two years found the course work unscientific and boring. He transferred to
zoology and earned his degree in 1951. He then went to Edinburgh University to
receive his advanced degree in animal genetics.
He spent a year of postgraduate work at Caltech, then joined the National
Institute for Medical Research in London in 1958. He left in 1962 after the
institute's director banned any work in human IVF, spending a year in Glasgow
before joining Cambridge University.
Edwards is survived by his wife, the former Ruth Fowler; five daughters; and 11
grandchildren.
news....@latimes.com
Copyright � 2013, Los Angeles Times
R H Draney
Apr 10, 2013, 6:29:15 PM4/10/13
to
Matthew Kruk filted:
--
Me? Sarcastic?
Yeah, right.
>
>On July 25, 1978, after two decades of intensive research, Edwards and his
>colleague, Dr. Patrick Steptoe, announced the birth of Louise Joy Brown, the
>first infant born from an egg fertilized outside the human body. That seminal
>event, the world's first "test-tube baby," triggered the age of in vitro
>fertilization (IVF), a process that has led to more than 5 million births
>worldwide and dramatically altered the reproductive landscape.
According to Wikipedia, Edwards attended Brown's wedding in 2004....r
>On July 25, 1978, after two decades of intensive research, Edwards and his
>colleague, Dr. Patrick Steptoe, announced the birth of Louise Joy Brown, the
>first infant born from an egg fertilized outside the human body. That seminal
>event, the world's first "test-tube baby," triggered the age of in vitro
>fertilization (IVF), a process that has led to more than 5 million births
>worldwide and dramatically altered the reproductive landscape.
--
Me? Sarcastic?
Yeah, right.
Brad Ferguson
Apr 10, 2013, 11:13:38 PM4/10/13
to
In article <kk4p3...@drn.newsguy.com>, R H Draney
There's a 2008 pic of Edwards with Louise Brown, her mother, and
Louise's baby boy. It's art for a CNN story about how the Vatican
thought giving Edwards the Nobel Prize was a really bad thing.
<http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/10/05/sweden.nobel.medicine/index.html>
<http://goo.gl/jNAUP>
Louise's baby boy. It's art for a CNN story about how the Vatican
thought giving Edwards the Nobel Prize was a really bad thing.
<http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/10/05/sweden.nobel.medicine/index.html>
<http://goo.gl/jNAUP>
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