IVF Pioneer Wins 2010 Nobel Prize

October 15, 2010

It brings Boston IVF great joy to learn that the 2010 Nobel Prize for medicine has been awarded to British scientist Robert Edwards, who pioneered in-vitro fertilization, a procedure that has enabled infertile couples to have more than 4 million babies since 1978!

Worldwide, around one in 10 couples are infertile and, until IVF was developed by Dr. Edwards, doctors could do little to help individuals and couples have children.

Image"His achievements have made it possible to treat infertility, a medical condition affecting a large proportion of humanity," the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden said in announcing the $1.5 million prize. "Today, IVF is an established therapy throughout the world."

Edwards began his work in the 1950s to develop a way to remove an egg from a woman's ovaries, fertilize it with a man's sperm in the laboratory and place the fertilized egg back into the woman's womb to develop naturally. It is used to treat a host of fertility problems, including cases in which a woman's fallopian tubes are blocked, preventing the egg from being fertilized normally.

RELATED LINKS  

-Click here to read more on Dr. Edwards Nobel Prize win and the research that led him to eventually help millions start their own families.

-Click here to hear Boston IVF's Michael Alper, MD discuss the Nobel prize announcement with WBZ Radio's Ed Walsh.

-Click here to hear the National Public Radio (NPR) story on Dr. Edwards, featuring old interviews and insight into what was then HUGELY controversial research.