Center for Biomedical Research

DIVISIONS
Center for Biomedical Research

History of the Population Council's Center for Biomedical Research

In its early biomedical work, the Population Council's primary objectives were to increase understanding of the human reproductive system and to spur investigation of possible new methods of contraception. When the Council began operation in 1952, little attention was being devoted to fertility control. Instead, scientists were concentrating their efforts primarily on sterility, fetal development, and the birth process. The Council's early biomedical research grants, therefore, supported programs and projects in reproductive physiology.

In 1956, the Population Council obtained a grant to establish its own biomedical research laboratory at the Rockefeller University. In this way the Council could help influence research in fertility regulation by providing facilities where young people could be trained and collaborative work carried out with established investigators. The Council also continued to provide grant support to scientists at leading research institutions.

In the 1960s, the biomedical division (as it was then known—it became the Center for Biomedical Research in 1976) played a major role in the development, clinical testing, statistical evaluation, establishment of local manufacture, and distribution of modern forms of the intrauterine device, or IUD, particularly the plastic Lippes Loop. Population Council scientists in the mid-1960s produced the first copper-bearing, T-shaped IUD, which they helped to develop and introduce in the developing world.

Contraceptive development and products
By 1970, it had become apparent that a number of potential contraceptive methods or ideas were not being pursued by pharmaceutical companies. Most large pharmaceutical companies concentrated their efforts on modifying the formula of the highly profitable birth control pills rather than undertaking new product development. In addition, there were disincentives to pharmaceutical company contraceptive development. They included issues related to exclusivity of patent and distribution rights, intracompany competition for research and development funds, potential exposure to litigation, difficulty obtaining insurance, and government regulatory requirements. Business decisions also were influenced by estimates of market size—the more methods available, the smaller the share of users for each one.

International Committee for Contraception Research
In late 1970, the Population Council formed the International Committee for Contraception Research (ICCR), a network of outstanding scientists with their own laboratories in both developed and developing countries, to provide a noncommercial, international mechanism for identifying, developing, and testing new contraceptive leads. The ICCR has collaborated since then with scientists at the Council's Center for Biomedical Research in developing and testing additional intrauterine devices, implants, vaginal rings, patches, male methods, and microbicides, as well as methods that can be used for hormone replacement therapy and other therapeutic purposes.

Reproductive Biology and Immunology program
In the late 1970s, the Population Council made a commitment to further strengthen its already substantial base in reproductive sciences research. An increased emphasis on fundamental and applied research, coupled with the desire to increase research in the area of male reproductive physiology, led to the addition of new staff members and 3,000 square feet of new laboratory space at the Center for Biomedical Research. Staff members were chosen who had an interest in an institutional program of interdisciplinary research and who had demonstrated the ability to conduct independent, high-quality work.

This combination of individual investigator initiative and the desire for collaboration with colleagues working on related projects has sustained the Reproductive Biology and Immunology program (formerly the Reproductive Physiology program) and provided a stimulating atmosphere for the training of postdoctoral fellows. The reproductive biomedicine fellowships provide unique opportunities for men and women from developing countries to make the transition from student to independent investigator. The trainees have had an enormous impact on the research program and, in turn, the program has markedly influenced their professional careers.

From 1979 through 2002, the program was a member of the Centers in Reproductive Research program supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. In 2001 the research scope of the program was expanded to include studies of the role of dendritic cells of the immune system in immunodeficiency virus infection. Scientists in the Reproductive Biology and Immunology program conduct research that provides leads for contraceptive development, for the development of topical microbicides to prevent sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS, and for the identification of causes of and therapies for infertility and other reproductive health disorders.

See Also

Print this page

@
E-mail this page

This page updated
22 June 2005