The man behind IVF
(wz) It seems the stuff of science fiction when professor Robert Edwards enthuses about humans being able to regenerate their own damaged tissue and, potentially, double their life span.
But then you remember that this is the man who, with gynaecologist Patrick Steptoe, did what many said couldn’t, indeed shouldn’t, be done in 1978 with the first baby born by in vitro fertilisation. Thirty years on, eight million lives have been created using the science they pioneered.
Not content to rest on such illustrious laurels even at the age of 82, Edwards’ quicksilver mind now applies itself to how the axolotl, a salamander, is able to grow back lost appendages, and the intriguing discovery of the MRL mouse. This mouse also has remarkable regenerative powers, as American scientist Prof Ellen Heber-Katz accidentally discovered when holes punched in lab animals’ ears healed, growing new cartilage and even hair follicles.
Similar powers of regeneration are seen if a fingertip is lost by a very early human foetus. What if such power could be tapped by adults to “repair from within”, as Edwards describes it.
“What I am telling you is equally important as IVF because it means you might live to 150,” he says. more…
From: »The Manchester Evening News«