On this day, September 27, 1925, Robert Edwards was born, a pioneering physiologist in reproductive medicine research and in vitro fertilization. He studied Agriculture and Zoology at the University of Wales and after graduating, he moved to the University of Edinburgh to study Animal Genetics, where he obtained his doctorate with a thesis on the embryonic development of mice. During the years 1955 and 1958, Edwards published more than 35 scientific papers on the developmental biology of mice.
She worked for a year at the California Institute of Technology, where she worked with Albert Tyler researching reproductive biology, specifically the interactions of sperm with eggs. In that year, Edwards investigated methods to limit fertility. He also worked for National Institute for Medical Research in London and there he investigated oocyte maturation. He discovered that immature eggs from mice, rats and hamsters continue to develop outside the maternal body (in vitro).
Edwards moved to the University of Cambridge, where he formed his first group of researchers. There, he showed in an article in the magazine The Lancet 1965 that human eggs mature in vitro. In 1967, he first contacted obstetrician Patrick Steptoe, who used laparoscopic surgery in his work. Thereafter, Steptoe and other obstetricians were able to provide Edwards with enough eggs to attempt fertilization with oocytes that had matured. in vitro.
An important contribution was that of Barry Bavister, who discovered that it is necessary to increase the pH value in the sperm environment in order to fertilize an egg. Thus they were able to fertilize a human egg outside the mother’s body for the first time. Edwards received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2010 for performing the first in vitro fertilization cycle in history.
