INDIA AND CALCUTTA LOST A NOBEL LAUREATE

HOW WE LOST A ‘’NOBEL LAUREATE’

Dr Mukhopadhaya [January 16, 1931-19June1981] graduated (1955) from the Calcutta National Medical College, earned doctorate from

the University of Calcutta [1958 in reproductive physiology] and the University of Edinburgh [1967 in reproductive endocrinology]

WHO laboratory manual for the examination of human semen came out in 1980. But in 1978 , Dr Subhash Mukhopadhaya, aware of the

diagnostics value of semenograms , diagnosed Durga’s father to be having a low sperm count and felt that such a condition can he

effectively treated with gonadotropins.

On 19-10-1978,he treated Mrs Agarwal with hMG[human menopausal gonadotrophin] as following regimen – 76 ampoules twice a day

and on alternate days and starting from day 3 to day 9 of the cycle. 6000 I.U. of hCG on day 11 of the cycle . 48 hr later , he aspirated as

many as 5 follicles [oocytes] from her .

Today Ovarian hyperstimulation is a standard work before IVF but it was only 1981 when other scientists first attempted ovarian

stimulation to extract ovum for IVF [Australians used clomiphene citrate in 1981 and Norfolk group in USA used hMC and hCG in 1982

in their IVF programmes]

Stimulated ovaries enlarge and drop down towards the Pouch of Douglas and by a small

incision on the posterior vaginal wall, Dr

Mukhopadhaya collected 5 oocytes in a couple of minutes. Note that the British team had used a laparascope to harvest oocytes [Others

aspirated oocytes transvesically under ultrasound guidance] and presently oocytes are aspirated per vaginum under ultrasound guidance

The oocytes were incubated for 4 hours before inseminating with the husband’s semen that was processed in protein-supplemented

Tyrodes solution -- exactly what is done even today. After 24 hours , it was incubated in a mixture of cervical-uterine fluids [use of such

fluid is not described elsewhere] for another 72 hours. Subsequently it was frozen slowly to about –196 degreeC after stepwise treatment

with dimethyl sulfoxide. One such frozen embryo was subsequently thawed slowly and transferred into the uterus

Dr Mukhopadhaya reported the successful cryopreservation of a eight cell embryo, storing it for 53 days, thawing and replacing it into the

mother’s womb, resulting in a successful and live birth as early as 1978 -- a full five years before anyone else had done so. [Report of first

cryopreservation of human embryos appeared as late as 1981 and first successful transfer of thawed human embryos in 1983]. Source -

Current Science, Vol .72. No. 7, 10th april1997

On 18 November 1978 , an ‘expert committee’ was appointed by the Government under a Radio physicist , a gynecologist, a

psychologist, a physicist and a neurologist whose verdict read as “Everything that Dr. Mukhopadhyay claims is bogus”. He was punished by being transferred to eye department sealing his prospect to work on hormones. He was denied passport by Indian  Govt.   to go to Japan where he was invited to speak on  his  invention  [IVF & ET]. Facing social ostracization, negligence, insult and refusal of the Government to allow him  a  passport  to  go  to attend international conferences, he committed suicide at age of 50 [ 19 June 1981]

On 1987 , T.C Anand Kumar, Director of IRR (ICMR) made the “first” test tube baby of India [Harsha - born 16 August 1986]. In 1997,

This  T.C. Anand Kumar   went to Kolkata for participating in the Science Congress ,  where  he was  shown  the  document  of  Dr  Mukhopadhaya. On rediscovering the research documents of Late Dr Mukhopadhyay,  T.C. Anand  Kumar  took the initiative to sacrifice his crown and officially proclaim Dr Mukhopahdhyay as the architect of first test tube baby  of  India  [“Durga” alias Kanupriya Agarwal]

The ‘Dictionary of Medical Biography,’ published by World Foundation, that enlists 1100 Medical Scientists contains only three names from Kolkata - Sir Ronald Ross, U.N. Bramhachari and Dr. Mukhopadhyay

Dr Mukhopadhaya’s test tube baby came only 68 days after the world’s first test tube baby and that also with few apparatus and a refrigerator in his small southern avenue flat.This would have been sufficient to be credited as independent invention and to claim a share of the Nobel Prize 2010 [medicine ] with Robert Edwards  [who  ,  with  Steptoe ,  made  the first  test tube baby – Louise  Brown] , were he alive today