Ethel Bidwell (1919–2003) was a British research scientist who investigated

blood coagulation Coagulation, also known as clotting, is the process by which blood changes from a liquid to a gel, forming a blood clot. It potentially results in hemostasis, the cessation of blood loss from a damaged vessel, followed by repair. The mechanism o ...

. In 1950, Bidwell, an enzyme chemist, joined the

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

team headed by Gwyn Macfarlane. Two years later, she began to study plasma concentration and selective extraction of

factor VIII Factor VIII (FVIII) is an essential blood-clotting protein, also known as anti-hemophilic factor (AHF). In humans, factor VIII is encoded by the ''F8'' gene. Defects in this gene result in hemophilia A, a recessive X-linked coagulation disorder. ...

. By 1953 she had devised a technique to extract and concentrate bovine factor VIII that was 8000 times stronger than human plasma. 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.

Tilli Tansey Elizabeth Matilda Tansey (known as Tilli) is an Emerita Professor of the history of medicine and former neurochemist, best known for her role in the Wellcome Trust's witness seminars. She previously worked at Queen Mary University of London ( ...

wrote of inviting Bidwell to a

witness seminar A witness seminar is a method of collecting oral history material, whereby a number of people connected to an event or topic meet to share recollections of their involvement. The results may be recorded or videoed and an edited transcript published. ...

convened by the

History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group The History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group (HoMBRG) is an academic organisation specialising in recording and publishing the oral history of twentieth and twenty-first century biomedicine. It was established in 1990 as the Wellcome Trust's H ...

References

External links

* 1919 births Place of birth missing 2003 deaths Place of death missing British scientists Haemophilia British medical researchers {{England-scientist-stub

Further reading

References

External links