Ethel Bidwell
Ethel Bidwell (1919–2003) was a British research scientist who investigated blood coagulation.
Ethel Bidwell | |
|---|---|
_Ethel_Bidwell.jpg.webp) Bidwell in February 1998 | |
| Born | 1919 |
| Died | 2003 (aged 83–84) |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Research scientist |
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
- "Oxford, the Mecca for blood coagulation research in the 1950s and 1960s". Thromb Haemost. 2: 2085–2088. 2004. doi:10.1111/j.1538-7836.2004.00969.x. PMID 15613008.
References
- Tilli Tansey; Daphne Christie, eds. (1999). Haemophilia: Recent history of clinical management. Wellcome Witnesses to Contemporary Medicine. History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group. ISBN 978-1-84129-008-9. Wikidata Q29581631.
- Story, Holly (24 September 2014). "Reality behind research: 21 years of oral history with Wellcome Witness". Wellcome Trust Blog. Retrieved 6 June 2017.