The father of in vitro fertilization (IVF) won the Nobel Prize this year in physiology or medicine. Robert G. Edwards, professor emeritus at the University of Cambridge, U.K., is the only prize winner. "His achievements have helped treat infertility, a medical condition that affects many parts of humanity including more than 10% of all couples worldwide," the Nobel Committee wrote, noting that nearly 4 million children have been born following IVF.
Edwards is seriously ill and was apparently unable to make the phone call from the Nobel Committee notifying the price. Göran Hansson, secretary of the Nobel Assembly in 2010, said he had spoken to the woman of Edwards, who said she was very happy and was sure Edwards would as well.
In the 1950s, inspired by the work that has shown that egg cells from rabbits could be fertilized in the lab and give birth to children, Edwards has been working to understand the biology of human cells to eggs, sperm and embryos. His research clarified how human eggs mature, how hormones regulate their maturation, and when the eggs can be fertilized by sperm. He has also been on the necessary conditions to enable the sperm and fertilize the egg. In 1969, he and his colleagues managed to impregnate a human egg in vitro for the first time. But the embryo was fragile and has not developed.
Edwards worked with gynecologist Patrick Steptoe, who developed the technique of laparoscopy to recover mature eggs from the ovaries. The embryos that resulted from fertilizing the oocytes developed further, but the pair ran into strong opposition to their research, and in 1971, the Medical Research Council U.K. refused their request for additional funding. A private donation allowed them to continue their work. Ultimately, in 1978, Louise Brown, the first "test tube baby" was born. Steptoe died in 1988; because the Nobel Prizes are awarded only to living scientists, it could not have been included.
Edwards was actively involved in ethical debates from the start, as he said in a 1999 speech "We are interested in the ethical situation before we started. The first ethical papers were written by my colleagues and myself, "said Edwards." We wrote ethical papers in 1970 Nature , and before that in other newspapers. ... and no one can ethicists say that ran the ethical debate on in vitro fertilization. They do not. "
"They were definitely swim upstream" says embryologist and stem cell researcher Roger Pedersen of the University of Cambridge. "The medical community has not been receptive" of what they were trying to do he said. "But of course, what happened is that they have revolutionized the treatment of infertility." the award, he says, is a powerful recognition "that fertility is a health problem."
the work of Edwards also allowed researchers to finally draw the human embryonic stem cells, Pedersen said: "This was part of his original vision." However, the Karolinska Institute cell biologist and member of the Nobel Christer Hoog-Assembly who also wrote a paper outlining why Edwards deserved a Nobel-said in an official interview after the announcement that the price was not to make a statement about the research on stem cells. "This price is only for the core technology" of IVF, he said.
Despite being famous lips tight, the Nobel organization seems to have sprung a leak this year. This morning, a story by the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet Edwards tipped as the likely winner. (Apparently confident in its case, the paper also translated the story, written by medical journalist Inger Atterstam in English.) When press conference this morning, Hansson said he was "very shocked" by the leak. Höög said he could not say whether there will be a formal investigation.
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