Sammy Lee (scientist)
Sammy Lee (born Samuel Lee, 1958 – 21 July 2012) was an expert on fertility[1] and in vitro fertilisation[2][3]
He was a hospital scientific consultant and was the chief scientist at the Wellington IVF programme.
In 2010, Willing to Die for It, Lee's biography by Frances Lynn was published by Murray Print.[6]
Lee died suddenly on 21 July 2012.[3]
Current research
Lee's interests lay in the field of
In addition, he was interested in tissue engineering and teaching ethics in reproduction. He was attached to the Jessen-Mirsky laboratory and was studying remyelination. Lee had ethical committee approval in Brasil for creating artificial gametes from umbilical cord blood derived stem cells. It is hoped these will be used to overcome infertility.[7]
Biography
Lee originally researched his Ph.D. at UCL under the supervision of Professor
Lee first published research in Neuroscience during the 1980s (from the Biophysics department at UCL), having worked on nerve muscle interaction ranging from examining TTX-resistant action potentials in denervated muscle [10] to studying cholinesterase activity in dissociated adult muscle fibres [11] following up on the work first done in the same department by Bill Betz and Bert Sakmann.[12][13] Lee changed his focus to embryos, when he realised that many of the questions framed by his Neuroscience research were rooted in the matter of differentiation. The ultimate undifferentiated cell is the fertilised egg. This led Lee to work on gap junctions in early mammalian embryos (in the Anatomy & Embryology department at UCL), where work with Anne Warner FRS and Anne McLaren DBE FRS produced new information on factors affecting communication between cells and their developmental potential.[14][15]
Lee became a clinical embryologist in 1985, when working with the gynaecologist
Lee latterly became based again at
He had previously served as an international
Lee's team at the Wellington pioneered the first UK practise of gamete Intra-fallopian transfer (GIFT), The GIFT of Life (a technique invented by Ricardo Asch in the USA). The team was the second to carry out GIFT and then proceeded to post the largest series in the world in 1986.[21][22]
Lee also helped perform some of the first
Lee pioneered a simple inexpensive efficient form of Mechanical Assisted Hatching in the
Lee had many
Lee was no stranger to
Lee also wrote an article in the
Professor Sammy Lee arranged a conference co-sponsored by the Progress Educational Trust entitled '21st Century Motherhood' at the University College London (UCL) (18 September 2009). Speakers included
.[28]Education and experience
Lee was educated at
Lee held the following appointments:
- Research Associate in Biophysics (1982–1984), and Anatomy & Embryology (1984–1985) University College London
- Laboratory Director,
- Consultant Clinical Embryologist, UK division of Ares Serono (human recombinant pharmaceutical company) [22]
- Scientific Director of the Colchester Fertility Service (1992 to 2001)
- Consultant Scientist and Director of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) at the Portland Hospital for Women & Children (1995–2003)
- Acting Scientific Director for the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital(1999–2000).
- Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Reproductive Medicine at the Homerton Hospital (2000–2005)
- Honorary Lecturer in the Anatomy & Developmental Biology Dept., University College London (2003–present).[19]
- Visiting Professor in Biomedical Science at the ABC Medical School in Brasil (2006–present).[29]
References
- ^ Hill, Amelia (13 September 2009). "Women are risking their lives to have IVF babies". The Guardian.
- ^ "Paying poor women for eggs is 'a Kind of Prostitution' says expert". The Times. 19 September 2009. Archived from the original on 12 September 2012.
- ^ a b "Obituary: Professor Samuel Lee". BioNews. 28 August 2012.
- ^ Parry, Vivienne (22 September 2009). "Why are older mothers still taboo?". The Times. Archived from the original on 8 October 2009.
- ^ Frayn, Rebecca (30 August 2009). "Rebecca Frayn: I just wanted a baby. I didn't even care if it put my life in danger". The Independent.
- ISBN 978-0-9539089-1-2.
- ^ "Dr Samuel Lee: Honorary Teaching Fellow". UCL Research Department of Cell and Developmental Biology. Archived from the original on 26 April 2010. Retrieved 23 September 2009. Official UCL page
- ^ [1] The School of Sir Bernard Katz
- ISBN 88-86062-55-9Published by CESI
- PMID 2827223.
- S2CID 19904911. Archived from the originalon 5 January 2013.
- PMID 4328253.
- PMID 4352108.
- PMID 3502992.
- S2CID 42791291.
- ^ The Daily Telegraph Letter from Ian Craft when he and Sammy Lee worked at the Wellington [3]
- ^ Official UCL page Archived 3 February 2009 at archive.today
- ^ Dr Sammy Lee, Scientific Director of the Portland Hospital, David McConnell, Professor of Genetics at TCD, and David Quinn, Editor of the Irish Catholic, discuss the issue [4][permanent dead link]
- ^ a b S. Lee (2007). "UCL staff webpage". UCL. Archived from the original on 4 May 2007.
- ^ UCL Staff Page (1987) Lee was FRSM and FRSH. He was inducted to Fellowship of RSH (now RSPH) and RSM. "UCL Research Dept. Cell & Developmental Biology". Archived from the original on 26 April 2010. Retrieved 23 September 2009.
- ^ a b J Laurance (30 October 1987). "The test tube dilemma". New Society.
- ^ a b c C Harrison (January 1991). "Failing to deliver". Public Eye. BBC.
- ^ "Society announcement". 1 (6). 1 September 1986. Archived from the original on 13 July 2012.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ Lee S.; Rivas-Toro H (2001). "Treatment with IUI and ICSI for HIV men whose partners remain HIV- free: a risk reduction method". J. Bras. Reprod. Ass. 5: 64–65.
- ^ BBC News Dr Sammy Lee and Ruth Deech head of the UK human fertilisation authority [5]
- ^ Times On Line 'Cultural historian Shere Hite says it’s just sexism ' [6]
- ^ UCL '21st Century Motherhood' Conference at the University College London (UCL) (18 September 2009) [7][permanent dead link]
- ^ In this podcast Professor Sammy Lee (chair of the conference, Visiting Professor in Biomedical Science ABC Medical School São Paulo, and Honorary Teaching Fellow at UCL), Lord Robert Winston (Imperial College) and Professor Naomi Pfeffer (Historian and Sociologist, London Metropolitan University) debate the issue and talk about the implications, both from a socio/historical and biological perspective. They cover topics such as IVF tourism, egg freezing and the money to be made from making babies [8]
- ^ Faculdade De Medicina Do ABC Information about the faculty[permanent dead link]
Further reading
- http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0702/07021906
- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article721865.ece Rebecca Frayn says Lee "created" Emmy, her daughter.
- http://www.rte.ie/news/2001/0816/primetime_av.html[permanent dead link] Lee debates cloning on RTÉ Primetime.
- Serono fertility award granted to Sammy Lee 1991
Bibliography
Selected journal articles
- M Buehr; S Lee; A McLaren; A Warner (1987). "Reduced gap junctional communication is associated with the lethal condition characteristic of DDK mouse eggs fertilized by foreign sperm" (PDF). PMID 3502992.
- MI Glavinovic; S Lee; R Miledi (1987). "Effect of collagenase treatment on rat muscle fibre acetylcholinesterase activity". J. Neurosci. Res. 18 (4): 519–524. S2CID 19904911.
- S Lee; NB Gilula; A Warner (1987). "Gap junctional communication and compaction during preimplantation stages of mouse development". S2CID 42791291.
- S Lee; R Miledi; F Ruzzier (1987). "Rat diaphragm muscle fibre action potentials and the development of tetrodotoxin resistance in long-term organ culture". Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physiology. 72 (4): 601–608. PMID 2827223.
- DA Clark; S Lee; S Fishel; M Mahadevan; H Goodall; M Ah- Moye; O Schechter; J Stedronska-Clark; S Daya; J Underwood; I Craft; J Mowbray (1989). "Immunosuppressive activity in human IVF culture supernatants and prediction of outcome of embryo transfer". Journal of in Vitro Fertililisation Embryo Transfer. 6 (1): 51–58. S2CID 9400038.
- S. Lee; H Rivas-Toro (2001). "Treatment with IUI and ICSI for HIV men whose partners remain HIV- free: a risk reduction method". J. Bras. Reprod. Ass. 5: 64–65.
- S Lee (1987). "GIFT, the hope for future infertility treatment". Journal Royal Society of Health. 107 (5): 201–202. S2CID 41121216.
- WAR Davies; HS Dhariwal; S Lee (1988). "GIFT and IUI in the district general hospital". Human Reproduction. 3 (5): 611–612. PMID 3170701.
- S Lee (1987). "Gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT); A great leap forward?". Human Reproduction. 2 (6): 541. PMID 3667909.
- M. Rissardo; S. Lee (2004). "Embryo implantation: is TNF-alpha the key?". Biomedical Scientist. 48: 1079–1085.
- S. Lee (2005). "Cloning today. Nine years on from Dolly". Biomedical Scientist. 49: 686–687.
- JD Alves; EL Radway-Bright; S Lee; B Grima; J Hothersall; CT Ravirajan; DA Isenberg (2005). "Antiphospholipid antibodies are induced by in vitro fertilization and correlate with paraoxonase activity and total antioxidant capacity of plasma in infertile women". Lupus. 14 (5): 1–8. S2CID 20536101.
Newspaper articles
- S. Lee (26 January 2004). "Will the cloning doctors follow IVF road and go from villains to heroes?". The Scotsman.
- S. Lee. The baby factories. Sunday Telegraph. 10 November 2002.
- S. Lee (July 2002). "IVF mixups". BBC News. BBC.
- S. Lee (1999). "Cloning". BBC News. BBC.
Books & book chapters/contributions
- S Lee (1996). Counselling in male infertility. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Press. ISBN 0-632-03906-X.
- S. Lee (2003). "Myths and reality in male infertility". In J. Haynes; amp; J. Miller (eds.). Inconceivable conceptions. Routledge. ISBN 1-58391-168-5.