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Eighteenth Annual Darwin College Lecture Series 2003
Changing Science and Society
Lecture 7 : 28 February 2003
DNA in Reproductive Medicine
Professor Lord Robert Winston
Royal Hammersmith Hospital, London
Robert Winston is Professor of Fertility Studies at Imperial College, London University,
and Director of NHS Research and Development for Hammersmith Hospital, one of the UK's leading
medical research centres. As a peer he takes the Government Whip (Lord Winston of Hammersmith
since 1995) and speaks regularly in the House of Lords on education, science, medicine and the
arts. He was the recent Chairman of the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and
Technology and is a board member of the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology. He is
Chancellor elect of Sheffield Hallam University. Robert Winston regularly presents BBC
science programmes. Series include "Your Life in Their Hands" (five series), "Making Babies,
"The Human Body" (three BAFTAs and a Peabody award), "Secret Life of Twins", "The Superhuman"
(Wellcome Award for Medicine and Biology), "Child of our Time" and, most
recently, "Human Instinct" (October 2002).
His Queen Charlotte's Appeal recently raised over £13 million to build and equip the most
advanced reproductive research centre in Europe, with space for 130 scientists and doctors
working to improve the health of women and babies.
His contribution to clinical medicine include the development of gynaecological microsurgery
in the 1970s and his team has established various improvements in reproductive medicine,
subsequently adopted internationally, particularly in the field of endocrinology, IVF and
reproductive genetics.
His group's research enabled families with a history of a particular genetic disease to
have children free of fatal illnesses. Their achievements include the development of
techniques to help families who have problems associated with gender (such as haemophilia
and muscular dystrophy), single gene defects (such as cystic fibrosis) and chromosomal
abnormalities. The team is now, amongst other things, developing methods for maturing eggs
outside the body, a technique that will make IVF very much cheaper and more accessible and
far less an intrusive procedure for would-be parents.
His awards include a Wellcome Senior Research Fellowship 1973-77, a Blair-Bell Lectureship
RCOG, 1978, the Cedric Carter Medal, Clinical Genetics Society, 1993, the Victor Bonney Medal
for contributions to surgery, Royal College of Surgeons, 1993 and an Honorary Fellowship from
Queen Mary and Westfield College. He has been a visiting professor at a number of overseas
universities and is an honorary fellow of various learned societies overseas. He was Gold
Medallist for the Royal Society of Health in 1998 and received the BMA Gold Award for
Medicine in the Media in 1999 and, in the same year, the Faraday Gold Medal from The Royal
Society. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 1998.
He holds honorary doctorates at three universities.
He has approximately 300 scientific publications in learned journals (including Nature,
Science, New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet) and various books, and writes regularly for
the lay press.
His interests include directing theatre productions (National Directors' Award, Edinburgh
Festival 1969), matters of Jewish interest, classical music, and skiing. He is involved with a
number of UK charities, including the Imperial Cancer Research Fund - of which he is a council
member. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) and a member of The Athenaeum.
The lectures are given at 5.30 p.m. in The Lady Mitchell Hall,
Sidgwick Avenue, with an adjacent overflow theatre with live TV
coverage. Each lecture is typically attended by 600 people so you
must arrive early to ensure a place.
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