MRC National Institute for Medical Research, London
Science for Health
Congratulations to Robert Edwards on his Nobel Prize
06 October 2010
NIMR alumnus Professor Robert Edwards has been awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his pioneering work in the development of human in vitro fertilization (IVF) therapy.
Robert Edwards completed his PhD at the University of Edinburgh and then spent one year at the California Institute of Technology at Pasadena before coming to NIMR. Alan Parkes interviewed him at NIMR in 1957 and was much impressed, describing him as “a young man of great promise”, who had “already done some extremely good research work”.
Edwards worked at NIMR from 1958-62, in the Division of Experimental Biology headed by Alan Parkes. Other prominent members of the Division at the time were the cryobiology pioneer Audrey Smith, Chris Polge and Colin (Bunny) Austin. Polge, Smith and Parkes had earlier published a landmark paper on the freezing and revival of spermatozoa. Austin had previously discovered sperm capacitation.
At NIMR Edwards was chiefly interested in the immunology of reproduction and gained an excellent reputation in this field. He says that his time at NIMR shifted his interests from pure science to biomedicine, and his emphasis on immunology gradually decreased. Increasingly his main ambition was to work with human gametes and embryos and to do something about human infertility. Whenever he could he pursued his investigations on oocyte maturation, looking at a range of species. Edwards also carried out a lot of work on induced ovulation and superovulation in mice, looking at the effects on eggs, the embryos, the mothers, parturition and offspring. Techniques to induce ovulation are relevant to IVF in humans as it is very difficult to use natural ovulation.
Others had shown that egg cells from rabbits could be fertilized in test tubes when sperm was added, giving rise to offspring. Edwards decided to investigate if similar methods could be used to fertilize human egg cells, and started to obtain human samples from a nearby hospital.
Edwards left NIMR in 1962 and joined John Paul's group at Glasgow University. He then accepted an invitation by Alan Parkes, recently appointed as the Mary Marshall Professor of the Physiology of Reproduction at Cambridge University, to join him there. Austin also moved to the same department in Cambridge.
Robert Edwards was awarded the Lasker prize in 2001 for his work in IVF.
Robert Cox is a retired NIMR scientist who knew Robert Edwards during his time at NIMR:
Robert Edwards and I were colleagues for two years (1960-62) and became lifelong friends. During those two years he was actively studying human oocyte maturation. His move to Glasgow to develop skills in tissue culture was a time of upheaval for the Edwards family before they became settled in Cambridge. Robert Edwards showed great courage because his work was regarded as controversial and finding a collaborator with the appropriate clinical qualifications was difficult. His legacy is the demonstration that in vitro fertilisation is a recognised ethical treatment and babies borne in this way can have healthy children of their own. I think his well-deserved Nobel Prize is long overdue.
Robert Cox
I was absolutely delighted to hear that Bob Edwards was awarded (at last!) this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Bob's work has touched many lives, and indeed the four million people who have been born through in vitro fertilisation include my eight-year-old twins. I and many others have great cause to be thankful to him.
Jim Smith, NIMR Director
Robert Edwards at NIMR in 1958
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