Father of IVF wins Nobel Prize
4 October 2010
Pioneering scientist Professor Robert Edwards was today awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
Robert Edwards is well-known as the father of IVF and forged the way in infertility research. He became a staff scientist at the Medical Research Council (MRC) National Institute for Medical Research in London in 1958 where he initiated his research on the human fertilisation process. He went on to further his work at Cambridge University and at the Bourn Hall Clinic, the world's first IVF centre, which he founded together with Patrick Steptoe.
Dr Declan Mulkeen, director of Research Programmes at the Medical Research Council (MRC), said:
“Professor Edwards’ research led to many subsequent advances in this field and we heartily applaud his achievement. The MRC is delighted by the award which recognises Professor Edwards’ dedication to ensuring that his early research translated into clinical practice.”
Amid much public debate in the early 1970s, Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe’s IVF research did not receive MRC funding. Dr Mulkeen explained:
“The MRC funded the foundations of Edwards’ research from 1958. However, why the MRC didn’t fund this research in the early 1970s is still a question that’s debated. Infertility was certainly given a lower prominence in research funding priorities and in clinical practice in the 1970s than it would have been ten years later. We also have to remember that there was great anxiety that the technique might result in birth abnormalities. In light of the culture and knowledge of the time, I can see how the safety and ethical reservations generated by this pioneering research were difficult to overcome.
“Today, we have mechanisms in place which help to manage highly promising research through from the laboratory bench to the patient’s bedside, so progress isn’t stalled.
“It’s a real credit to Professor Edwards and Patrick Steptoe that their commitment and determination to progress science has helped many couples who have difficulty in conceiving and resulted in over four million new lives through IVF.”
In 2001 Robert Edwards was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Cambridge and the Albert Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award for the development of in vitro fertilization. Now aged 85, Edwards is a Pensioner Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge.
The recent paper in Human Reproduction by University of Cambridge’s Prof Martin Johnson sets out the debate behind the funding of IVF:
