270 ISSN: 2249 –4820 Chemistry & Biology Interface, 2013, 3, 4, 270-275 Chemistry & Biology Interface An official Journal of ISCB, Journal homepage; www.cbijournal.com OBITUARY Sir Robert Geoffrey Edwards (1925-2013) The World Scientific Community suffered a joined the University of Cambridge as Ford huge setback on April 10, 2013 when the Foundation Research Fellow and became a pioneer of reproductive medicine and in- Reader in Physiology in 1969. He, in vitro fertilisation (IVF) Sir Robert Geoffrey collaboration with Patrick Steptoe, a Edwards, FRS, a Nobel Prize-winning gynaecologic surgeon from Oldham General scientist died at the age of 87 after a long Hospital, developed human culture media to lung illness. allow the fertilisation and recover ovocytes from patients with tubal infertility with the Robert G. Edwards was born on 27 th help of laparoscopy, ultimately led to the September, 1925 at Batley in England. After birth of Louise Brown, the world’s first “test finishing his schooling in Manchester, he tube baby” at 11.47 PM on 25 th July, 1978. served in the British Army and then During the entire development of the completed his undergraduate studies in creation of this medical history, their biology at Bangor University. Edwards then attempts met significant hostility and moved to the University of Edinburgh and opposition, including a refusal of the studied at the Institute of Animal Genetics Medical Research Council to fund their and Embryology and earned his doctorate research and a number of lawsuits. degree in Genetics in 1955. In 1963, he 271 ISSN: 2249 –4820 Chemistry & Biology Interface, 2013, 3, 4, 270-275 In-vitro fertilisation (IVF), a process by that has revolutionized the cure of human which an egg is fertilised by sperm outside infertility, Professor Edwards was awarded the body ( in-vitro, in laboratory condition), Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in has offered a new way to help infertile 2010. In addition to the Nobel Prize, he had couples who formerly had no possibility of several honours and awards to his credit too. having a baby. IVF involves monitoring the To name a few are Fellow of the Royal woman’s ovulatory process to remove Society (elected in 1984), Doctor Honoris ova/eggs from the woman’s ovaries and then Causa, University of Valencia (Spain), letting sperm for fertilisation to take place in Albert Lasker Clinical Medical Research a fluid medium in a laboratory. The Award by the Lasker Foundation for the fertilised egg (Zygote) is subsequently development of IVF technique (2001), an transferred to the patient’s uterus with the Honorary Doctorate, University of aim of establishing the successful Huddersfield (2007), Knighthood (2011), pregnancy. It may be used to overcome etc. female infertility due to problems of fallopian tube, making the fertilisation in - Prof. Edwards is survived by his wife Ruth vivo (in natural condition) difficult. It may Fowler Edwards, 5 daughters and 12 also assist in male infertility, if the sperm grandchildren. The death of this British quality is defective, and in that case Physiologist, known as the father of IVF for intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) may pioneering the development of test tube be used, where a sperm cell is injected babies, whose work was motivated by his directly into the egg cell. When the sperm belief that “the most important thing in life count is very low and also has difficulty/no is having a child” has created a huge gap in power to penetrate the egg, only then ICSI is the scientific community and could be utilised and also found to increase the termed as an unbearable loss to the entire success rates of IVF. scientific fraternity. Hopefully, the many students he mentored may carry forward his For the development of this path breaking scientific legacy. treatment in the history of medical science 272 ISSN: 2249 –4820 Chemistry & Biology Interface, 2013, 3, 4, 270-275 Professor Francois Jacob (1920-2013) The World Scientific Community lost a becoming a surgeon) as his career because scientist par excellence when Prof. Francois he couldn’t stand for long periods to perform Jacob, a French biologist/geneticist who operations owing to his injuries during propounded the Operon concept with wartime. After earlier rejections, Jacob Jacques Monod that explains the regulation joined the prestigious Pasteur Institute as of gene in Escherichia coli (E. coli , a research assistant under the supervision of bacterium), passed away on 19 th April, 2013. Andre Lwoff in 1950 in Paris and obtained This Nobel Laureate was 92. his doctorate in Science in 1954. Jacob Monod, a disciple of Andre Lwoff, was also Jacob was born on 17 th June, 1920 at Nancy carrying out research there at the same in France. After his schooling at Lycee institute. In 1960, he became the head of the Carnot, he entered medical school, received department of cellular genetics at the his M.D. degree in 1947 from the Faculty of institute and from 1965 he served as Medicine, University of Paris. Meanwhile, professor of cellular genetics at the College he joined the medical company of the de France. Jacob worked on phage (virus) in French 2 nd Armoured division in 1940 where Lwoff’s lab and Monod worked downstairs he injured in a German air attack in 1944. on bacteria. They began to collaborate after He was awarded France’s World War II realizing that they were actually studying the highest decoration for valor, the Cross of same thing i.e. repression, uncovering the Liberation as well as Legion d’honneur and switch that turns beta galactosidase synthesis Croix de Guerre for his wartime service. He off and on, led to the award of Nobel Prize had to choose research rather than medical in Medicine or Physiology in 1965 with profession (the shrapnel that pierced his side Andre Lwoff. He was also conferred on during the invasion killed his dream of Gran Prix Charles-Leopold Mayer by the 273 ISSN: 2249 –4820 Chemistry & Biology Interface, 2013, 3, 4, 270-275 Academie des Sciences in 1962, Lewis prefers glucose as food source, is able to Thomas Prize for Writing about Science and adapt to changes in the available food in its also Academie francaise Seat 38 in 1996. He environment. When it is put in a culture in has also authored books. To name a few are which the only source of energy is lactose The Possible and The Actual (1982); The rather than glucose, the cells will start Statute Within: An Autobiography (1988); consuming it and to do that, it needs three The Logic of Life (1993); Of Files, Mice specific enzymes. When lactose is abundant, and Men (1998). a lactose molecule attaches to a protein that is repressing the three enzymes’ gene. The DNA of any organism doesn’t tell about the genes are then activated, which allows the specificity of function developed in each and cell to consume lactose and survive. The every cell of our body, which requires entire complex is called the lac operon. regulation. Jacob and Monod showed where Jacob and Monod’s unravelling of the lac and how the regulation occurred i.e. how a operon not only introduced the concept of gene’s activity can be turned on and off regulatory sites on DNA, but also the (gene regulation) through Operon model, concept of mRNA, an intermediary which is regarded as the secret of life’s molecule between DNA and protein. complexity and adaptability. Operon is a unit of gene expression and regulation, He was married to Lysiane Bloch with which includes Regulator gene (self whom he had four children and after her regulated), Promotor gene (the site where death he remarried in 1999 to Genevieve RNA polymerase is attached), Operator gene Barrier. His passing away has created a void (the gene which initiates the transcription for in the scientific community in general and mRNA) and different Structural genes which amongst geneticists in particular who will determine the RNA sequence for the remain indebted to his path breaking structure of a particular protein. In true discovery concerning regulatory activities in sense, the Operator, Promotor and the bacteria that fetched him a Nobel Prize in Structural genes together constitute the 1965 in Physiology or Medicine. Operon. The bacterium E. coli , which 274 ISSN: 2249 –4820 Chemistry & Biology Interface, 2013, 3, 4, 270-275 Christian de Duve (1917-2013) Prof. Christian Renè, viscount de Duve, an joined the Catholic University of Leuven in eminent Belgian Nobel Prize-winning 1947 to teach physiological chemistry and cytologist and biochemist who pioneered the became a Professor in 1951. He joined modern cell biology and cell fractionation Rockefeller University in New York City in techniques, died on May 4, 2013 at the age 1962 as a faculty and divided his time of 95 after battling with cancer, arrhythmia between New York and Leuven. Later on, he and a number of health problems. He, became Emeritus Professor at the University however, chose to end his life through of Leuven in 1985 and at the Rockefeller euthanasia. University in 1988. He founded the International Institute of Cellular and C. de Duve was born on 2 nd October 1917 at molecular pathology in Brussels in 1974 and Thames Ditton in Surrey, Great Britain. His retired as President of the pathology institute parents fled to England during the First in 1991. He wrote several books too, the World War and after the end of the war, they important of them are- “A Guided Tour of returned to Belgium in 1920. He earned his the Living Cell (1984)”; “Blueprint for a medical degree from the Catholic University Cell”; Vital Dust; Genetics of Original Sin: of Leuven in 1941 and a doctorate degree in The Impact of Natural Selection on the chemistry in 1945 on insulin.