Carl Axel Gemzell
Carl Axel Gemzell (January 4, 1910 in Motala, Sweden – February 11, 2007 in Norrtälje, Sweden) was a Swedish reproductive endocrinologist.
Life
Gemzell studied medicine at the Karolinska Institute and was registered as a physician in 1940. [1] After training in surgery and obstetrics and gynecology he studied experimental endocrinology at the Wenner-Gren Institute and received his PhD in 1948. Subsequently he worked at the Institute for Experimental Biology of the University of California, Berkeley before returning to Sweden. He became professor in Ob-Gyn at the University of Uppsala. After his mandatory retirement in Sweden in 1975, he moved to the USA where he continued to work at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York before he retired in Florida and later returned to Sweden.
Work
Gemzell developed methods to extract the human growth hormone and human gonadotropins from cadaver pituitary glands. In 1958 Gemzell was the first to show that extracted gonadotropins containing FSH could be used as fertility medication to stimulate ovulation in women with anovulatory infertility. Ovulation stimulation using FSH medication became the basis of modern infertility therapy such as IVF. Gemzell recognized early that multiple pregnancy and the ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome were major side effect of the therapy; the first quads were delivered in 1960.[2] Gemzell’s pituitary gonadotropin preparation was soon replaced by FSH extracts from urine of postmenopausal women by a method that was developed by Donini and later marketed as Pergonal. Decades later pituitary extraction were proven to be unsafe as Creutzfeld-Jacob disease could be transmitted.[3]
In 1960 Gemzell and Leif Wide presented a pregnancy test based on in-vitro hemagglutination inhibition, a first step away from in-vivo pregnancy testing.[4][5] This test initiates a series of improvements in pregnancy testing leading to the contemporary at-home testing.[6]
Gemzell was a collector of modern paintings and drawings. A part of his collection was publically exhibited at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 1996.
The Gemzell Prize is awarded annually to medical researchers by the University of Uppsala since 1977.
Key publications
GemzellCA, Diszsfalusy E and Tillinger KG (1958) Clinical effect of human lituatary follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). J Clin Endocrinol Metab18, 138.
J Reprod Fertil. 1966 Aug;12(1):49-64. The clinical use of pituitary gonadotrophins in women. Gemzell CA, Roos P, Loeffler FE. PMID: 5330083
External links
- Obituary [11]
References
- ^ Bettendorf G (1995). Gemzell, Carl Axel, in Zur Geschichte der Endokrinologie und Reproduktionsmedizin. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. p. 174-176. ISBN 978-3-642-79153-6.
- ^ "The Fantastic Drug That Creates Quintuplets". Life. August 13, 1965. p. 24ff. Retrieved July 7, 2014.
- ^ Robert G. Edwards (October 2001). "The bumpy road to human in vitro fertilization" (PDF). Nature Medicine, Vol. 7, Number 10. Nature Publishing Group. Retrieved July 7, 2014.
- ^ Bleavins MR, Carini C, Malle JR, Rahbari R (2010). Biomarkers in Drug Development: A Handbook of Practice, Application, and Strategy , Chapter 1, Blood and Urine Chemistry. John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-16927-8.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ http://intapp3.phadia.com/PageFiles/27898/Wide.PDF
- ^ Attention: This template ({{cite pmid}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by PMID 16454158, please use {{cite journal}} with
|pmid=16454158instead. - ^ Attention: This template ({{cite pmid}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by PMID 5330083, please use {{cite journal}} with
|pmid=5330083instead. - ^ Attention: This template ({{cite pmid}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by PMID 13785019, please use {{cite journal}} with
|pmid=13785019instead. - ^ Attention: This template ({{cite pmid}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by PMID 13897660, please use {{cite journal}} with
|pmid=13897660instead. - ^ Attention: This template ({{cite pmid}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by PMID 13611018, please use {{cite journal}} with
|pmid=13611018instead. - ^ http://agosonline.org/member-pages-in-memoriam/gemzell-ca-2007.html