His doctoral research concentrated on mouse embryos and in collaboration with a fellow student Ruth Fowler, he developed the Fowler-Edwards method used to treat female mice with hormones and regulate the number of eggs produced and their time of evolution.
Robert Edwards began to study in-vitro maturation of human oocytes in the early 1960s. On February 15, 1969, the journal Nature published a paper authored by R.G Edwards, B.D Bavister and P.C Steptoe: Early stages of fertilization in vitro of human oocytes matured in vitro.
Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe perfected the process of in-vitro fertilization and created the first human test tube baby.
Louise Joy Brown, born in 1978 was the first ‘test tube’ baby – born from the in-vitro fertilization or conception outside a woman’s body. Edwards and Steptoe worked on procedures for in-vitro fertilization for 10 years before the procedures resulted in the birth of Louise Brown.
Robert Edwards: pioneer in reproductive medicine, and in-vitro fertilization (IVF)
