Considered as the most prestigious award in science, the Nobel Prize for the year 2010 was awarded to Prof. Robert Edward for his pioneering work on In-Vitro Fertilization (a technique that helped many with infertility issues) through which Louise Brown was born in July, 1978. I read the article in a reputed magazine in 2010 while travelling to my home. In the article, a very short mention of Dr. Subhas Mukerji (aka Dr. Subhas Mukhopadhyay) struck my sense and I decided to go through his life upon reaching home. Though I collected a lot of his life events through various sources, I could never collate the life of this “forgotten hero” at a place.
I am not
sure where to begin with, but will start from start. Dr. Subhas Mukerji was born
in Hazaribagh district in erstwhile state of Bihar (now Jharkhand, India) on 16th
January 1931. He completed his MBBS from National Medical College, Calcutta
(now Kolkata). Having interest in research, he went on to earn a D. Phil in
reproductive physiology from Calcutta University under the supervision of Prof.
Sachidananda Banerjee. He obtained another PhD in reproductive endocrinology
from University of Edinburgh, UK (MRC Clinical Endocrinology Research Unit).
After his research stint at UK, Dr. Mukerji returned to India in 1967 and
worked in NRS Medical College Kolkata. Continuing his research interest, he
teamed up with Dr. Sunit Mukherji (a cryobiologist) and Dr. Saroj Kanti
Bhattacharya (a gynaecologist) to initiate the IVF research in India. The team
was working on a possibility of IVF for a patient who had damaged fallopian
tube.
The
dedication of Dr. Subhas Mukerji and team led India to a historic moment on
October 3, 1978 when the birth of India’s first and world’s second “test-tube
baby” was announced. The girl was named Durga. The announcement came just 67
days after the birth of world’s first test-tube baby named Louise Brown. Prof.
Robert Edward was later bestowed with Nobel Prize in Medicine/Physiology for
the year 2010. The striking feature of Dr. Subhas Mukerji’s research was not only
a success with IVF but that he successfully cryopreserved an eight-celled embryo
for 53 days and there was that successful implantation with the thawed embryo.
Dr. Subhas Mukerji was also the first to use human menopausal gonadotropin
(hMG) to stimulate ovary for the egg production in the treatment protocol. In
this regard, Dr. Mukerji is considered far ahead of his time to use ovarian
stimulation protocol before any other scientists thought of achieving that. Few
even are of opinion that the technique Dr. Mukerji used was far better than
that applied by Prof. Edward (in the sense that laparoscopic isolation of eggs
was difficult compared to ovulation stimulation). Dr. Subhas Mukerji is
considered “first” in many aspects (Prof. Edward did not use these techniques) such
as:
§ Use of human menopausal gonadotropins for induction of
ovulation
§ Use of transvaginal egg retrieval
§ Cryopreservation of viable embryos
§ Transplantation of cryopreserved embryo in the uterus
that resulted in India’s first and world’s second IVF child
The scientific excellence of Dr. Mukerji resulted in the
birth of a child who he named “Durga” (official name Kanupriya Agarwal) on
October 3rd, 1978.
The tragedy
Approximately a decade ago, Beryl Benderly published an
eye-opening short article on this incident in Science magazine blog and termed
it as “Indian Crab-Syndrome”. Crab-syndrome, in short, is a feeling that if I
can’t have it, neither can you.
Doubting the claims made by Dr. Subhas Mukerji, the then
government of West Bengal constituted an “expert committee” to verify the
scientific claims. Surprisingly, the committee consisted of people who had no
idea of that field of research. The committee was headed by a professor of
radiophysics and consisted of a gynaecologist, a physiologist, and a
neurophysiologist. They were far from knowing the details of IVF at that time
but were holding an enquiry in the subject of reproductive technology. The
final verdict of the committee resulted in denouncement of the extraordinary
work done by Dr. Mukerji. The work, irrespective of the resistance encountered,
was already presented to some extent in various conferences and symposiums such
as 5th International Congress on Hormonal Steroids (New Delhi,
1978), public lecture at Sir Gangaram Hospital New Delhi, interviewed by Prof. B.
B. Saxena and Prof. G. P. Talwar that was aired on Delhi Doordarshan (November
1978), Satellite Symposium of 5th International Congress on Hormonal
Steroids at Varanasi, and even at Indian Science Congress (Hyderabad, 1979).
Dr. Subhas Mukerji was also awarded a “MANPATRA” as a recognition towards his
excellent work. But the final verdict of the “expert committee” resulted in
prohibiting him to present his work in a conference in Japan in 1979. He was
further prohibited to attend any conferences and meetings. Dr. Subhas Mukerji suffered
a heart attack due to this decision. The final blow came when he was
transferred to the Regional Institute of Opthalmology (on June 5, 1981) to teach
electrophysiology which was not at all his field of work. This was supposedly done
to prevent him from carrying out any further research. Not able to cope with
such humiliation and distress, Dr. Subhas Mukerji committed suicide on July 19,
1981.
A few examples that clearly indicates that Dr. Mukerji
was far ahead of his time can be found from the claims that were made after his
suicide. It is reported that it was only in and after 1981 that scientists
started ovarian stimulation technique (an Australian group and Norfolk group in
USA).
The long awaited respect
India’s first scientifically documented “test-tube baby” was
reported to be born on August 6, 1986 by a team led by Dr. T. C. Anand Kumar
(Institute for Research in Reproduction Bombay) and Dr. Indira Hinduja at KEM
Hospital Bombay (now Mumbai). The girl was named Harsha (born to Mrs. Mani
Chawda and Mr. Shanti Kumar). Things went on as usual and for very long we were
told that Harsha was the first test-tube baby from India (she was second, after
Durga).
In the year 1997, Dr. T. C. Anand Kumar was invited for a
talk at Third National Congress on Assisted Reproductive Technology and Advances
in Infertility Management at Calcutta (now Kolkata). It was Dr. T. C. Anand
Kumar, who officially accepted and announced that Dr. Subhas Mukerji was the
architect of India’s first “test tube baby”. A detailed report of the evidences
clearly indicating the achievements of Dr. Mukerji was published in the journal
Current Science in the year 1997 (cited in the reference section). After 19
years, Dr. Subhas Mukerji was posthumously credited with the respect and credit
that was his.
In very strong words, Dr. T. C. Anand Kumar mentioned
that the ignorance of the medical fraternity, bureaucratic arrogance, and
vindictiveness led to the loss of one of our distinguished scientists. We also
lost our claim over world’s first successful implantation of cryopreserved and
thawed embryo resulting in birth of a human being.
References
- Anand Kumar T. C. Architect of India’s first test tube baby: Dr. Subhas Mukerji (16 January 1931 to 19 July 1981). Current Science, 1997; 72(7): 526-531
- Bharadwaj A. The Indian IVF saga: a contested history. Reprod Biomed Soc Online. 2016; 2: 54-61
- Nobel prize 2010. Science Reporter (NISCAIR India), December 2010; 47(12).
- https://blogs.sciencemag.org/sciencecareers/2011/01/the-award-of-th.html ; accessed on August 2, 2020.
- https://www.thebetterindia.com/129159/subhash-mukherjee-doctor-india-first-test-tube-baby/; accessed on August 2, 2020.
Excellent Article
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot. Please stay tuned, will be posting one scientist every week.
DeleteGood piece of writing about an unforgotten Hero who might have contributed more to Science but Human mind is so strange that most of the time we never appreciate what one has done rather drag him/her back. So tragic end of a bright mind.
ReplyDeleteVery few people know about Dr. Subhas Mukhopadhyay. Glad to see that you covered his story in your blog.
ReplyDelete