However, her start in life was far more extraordinary – Louise Brown was the first baby to be born after being conceived by in vitro fertilisation (IVF). An updated display in the Who Am I? gallery showcases Louise’s story and original incubator as well as cutting edge IVF techniques.
In vitro is the Latin for ‘in glass’ and refers to an egg being fertilised with sperm in a laboratory rather than in the womb. When the front cover of the Daily Mail announced Louise’s birth, she was described as a ‘test-tube baby’. However, no test tubes were involved when Louise was conceived; the first people ever to have been conceived using IVF began life in a petri dish where the egg was fertilised with sperm.
The delicate fertilised eggs then developed for several days before being transferred into their mothers’ wombs. Inexpensive desiccator jars are routinely used in laboratories to dry or protect their contents from water damage.
The desiccator pictured above was repurposed by IVF pioneers Robert Edwards, Patrick Steptoe and Jean Purdy to use as an incubator for the newly fertilised human eggs. Originally sealed at the top with a ground glass stopper, it helped maintain the ideal environment for growth by replicating conditions found inside the body.
Robert Edwards – a British physiologist who had dedicated his career to the study of human reproduction – was the first person to fertilise a human egg outside the body in 1968. Edwards joined forces with surgeon Patrick Steptoe, known for his pioneering use of laparoscopic or ‘keyhole’ surgery to diagnose and treat gynaecological disorders; a technique he later perfected for collecting eggs from the ovaries.
With limited funding, Edwards and Steptoe relied on cheap or second-hand equipment and voluntary assistance from nurses to care for their patients. Jean Purdy was one such nurse whose laboratory expertise helped make IVF treatment a reality.
A skilled technician, Purdy monitored the developing eggs and was the first to witness their cells dividing. The trio embarked on a decade of clinical trials involving more than 282 women. During this time their work was met with widespread hostility from the scientific community, who argued that infertility was hardly a priority in an increasingly overpopulated world.
Louise’s birth created a media sensation, overturning scientific and popular opinion and offering a beacon of hope to people otherwise unable to conceive. The team’s achievements were finally recognised when Edwards – the only remaining living member – was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2010 for the development of IVF.
Since 1978, there have been many significant developments in the field of IVF – from sperm/egg/embryo freezing to preimplantation genetic diagnosis. One of the most significant recent developments is mitochondrial donation therapy (MDT).
Mitochondria are structures within all our cells which provide them with energy. Faulty mitochondria can cause life-threatening medical conditions. Mitochondrial disease is rare – an estimated 1 in 200 babies in the UK are born with genetic changes that could cause mitochondrial diseases, although not all these babies will have a serious illness.
Every person is different and there is a huge variety in the symptoms and severity of mitochondrial disease, depending on which and how many cells are affected. There is currently no cure, although there are therapies which can ease the symptoms.
MDT offers new hope to parents at risk of passing serious mitochondrial diseases to their children. This new treatment extracts the parents’ nuclear DNA from the mother’s fertilised egg, which contains faulty mitochondria.
This requires an incredible level of precision. Scientists use a tiny biopsy pipette, with an opening only 17 micrometres wide (less than a fraction of the width of a human hair) to remove the parents’ nuclear DNA from the nucleus at the heart of the mother’s fertilised egg (video below).
The nuclear DNA is then transferred to a healthy donor egg from another woman, which has also been fertilised with the father’s sperm. This has led to the phrase ‘three-parent babies’, though more than 99.8% of the baby’s DNA is from their mother and father.
In 2024, the only clinic licensed to carry out this treatment in the UK was the Newcastle Fertility Centre. It was reported via Freedom of Information requests in 2023 that the first babies had been born after this technique had been used. No further details were released to protect the privacy of the families involved.
To showcase this incredible technique in the Who Am I? gallery, the Science Museum Group collected examples of the equipment used at the Newcastle Fertility Centre. Looking at the biopsy pipette scientists use in person; it is amazing to see how fine the needle is and the level of accuracy that is required.
The Vitrolife Rapid-i straws, used for storing the eggs and embryos at the various stages of this process, are a testament to its complexity and the amount of organisation required.
There are still many barriers to access IVF in the UK. There is often a postcode lottery when it comes to receiving IVF treatment on the NHS, and many people have to pay for private treatment. It can also take several cycles of IVF to be successful and this can be incredibly physically and mentally demanding for families.
However, the success of Louise’s birth in 1978 and developments in IVF since have given hope to many families experiencing infertility as well as providing ways for same sex couples and single women to expand their families.
IVF has also transformed how families experiencing genetic conditions can make decisions about their families, using techniques such as preimplantation genetic diagnosis to MDT. In 2018, it was estimated that more than 8 million babies across the world had been born as a result of IVF. This is testament to the work of Edwards, Steptoe and Purdy, and to the hundreds of families who took part in the early clinical trials that led to Louise’s birth and allowed IVF to be developed.
Happy birthday Louise!
If you would like to read more about this topic, you can find our more in several posts on this blog:
IVF: from 6 million test tube babies to 400 million by 2100
IVF Revolution: past, present and future
Jean Purdy – the forgotten IVF pioneer
Muriel Harris: nursing IVF to success
Bourn Hall: the first IVF clinic
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