Ethel Bidwell
Ethel Bidwell | |
|---|---|
_Ethel_Bidwell.jpg) Bidwell in February 1998 | |
| Born | 12 July 1919 Haslingden, Lancashire |
| Died | 23 October 2003 (aged 84) Durham, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Research scientist |
Ethel Bidwell (12 July 1919 – 23 October 2003) was a British research scientist who investigated blood coagulation.
In 1950, Bidwell, an enzyme chemist, joined the Oxford University team headed by Gwyn Macfarlane. Two years later, she began to study plasma concentration and selective extraction of factor VIII.[1]
By 1953, she had devised a technique to extract and concentrate bovine factor VIII that was 8000 times stronger than human plasma.[1]
In 1959 she was working on the preparation of human coagulation factors at the Medical Research Council Blood Coagulation Research Unit at Churchill Hospital, Headington, Oxford.[1]
Tilli Tansey wrote of inviting Bidwell to a witness seminar convened by the History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group:[2]
She was extremely reluctant to attend, telling me over the phone when I invited her that she had nothing to contribute. But I knew, from reading the journals of the time and from a casual conversation with a haematologist friend that she was the person who, in the 1950s, had discovered factor VIII, the first reliable treatment for haemophilia, and I wanted to hear her story.
Further reading
- Denson, K. W. E. (2004). "Oxford, the Mecca for blood coagulation research in the 1950s and 1960s". Thromb Haemost. 2 (12): 2085–2088. doi:10.1111/j.1538-7836.2004.00969.x. PMID 15613008.
References
- ^ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in Module:Cite_Q at line 13: attempt to index a nil value.
- ^ Story, Holly (24 September 2014). "Reality behind research: 21 years of oral history with Wellcome Witness". Wellcome Trust Blog. Archived from the original on 20 April 2015. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
External links
- Ethel Bidwell on the History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group website
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