Wilfrid Roger Butt (2 May 1922 – 1 May 2006) was an English biochemist and

reproductive endocrinologist Reproductive endocrinology and infertility (REI) is a surgical subspecialty of obstetrics and gynecology that trains physicians in reproductive medicine addressing hormonal functioning as it pertains to reproduction as well as the issue of infert ...

. He pioneered the isolation and purification of several hormones, particularly follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), from cadavers, and used his isolates of FSH to treat

female infertility Female infertility refers to infertility in women. It affects an estimated 48 million women, with the highest prevalence of infertility affecting women in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa/Middle East, and Central/Eastern Europe and Cen ...

Early life and education

Wilfrid Butt was born in 1922 in

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

and later moved with his family to Rochester, Kent. In Rochester, he attended

Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School ("Beneath the shadow of thy wings") , established= , closed= , type=Grammar School;Academy (English school), Academy , religious_affiliation= , president= , head_label= , head=Eliot Hodges , r_head_label= , r_head= , chair_label=, chair= , founder ...

from 1933 to 1939. He was recruited into the Ministry of Supply as a chemist at the Royal Arsenal in his final year of school. While working at the Royal Arsenal during the Second World War, he completed a Bachelor of Science in chemistry at

London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree- ...

in 1944.

Career

After the war, Butt began working at the

London Hospital The Royal London Hospital is a large teaching hospital in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is part of Barts Health NHS Trust. It provides district general hospital services for the City of London and Tower Hamlets and sp ...

as a research assistant to the

endocrinologist Endocrinology (from ''endocrine'' + '' -ology'') is a branch of biology and medicine dealing with the endocrine system, its diseases, and its specific secretions known as hormones. It is also concerned with the integration of developmental events ...

Carl Crooke. He moved with Crooke to the Birmingham and Midlands Hospital for Women in 1948, where their research focused on the pituitary-ovarian-uterine axis and

. This was the subject of the PhD he earned in 1954 and a

DSc DSC may refer to: Academia * Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) * District Selection Committee, an entrance exam in India * Doctor of Surgical Chiropody, superseded in the 1960s by Doctor of Podiatric Medicine Educational institutions * Dalton State Col ...

in 1968. Butt became a consultant endocrinologist at Birmingham in 1964, and in 1970 he took over from Crooke as the head of the department of endocrinology. Butt's laboratory was among the first to isolate follicle-stimulating hormone,

luteinising hormone Luteinizing hormone (LH, also known as luteinising hormone, lutropin and sometimes lutrophin) is a hormone produced by gonadotropic cells in the anterior pituitary gland. The production of LH is regulated by gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) ...

and

prolactin Prolactin (PRL), also known as lactotropin, is a protein best known for its role in enabling mammals to produce milk. It is influential in over 300 separate processes in various vertebrates, including humans. Prolactin is secreted from the pit ...

from the

pituitary gland In vertebrate anatomy, the pituitary gland, or hypophysis, is an endocrine gland, about the size of a chickpea and weighing, on average, in humans. It is a protrusion off the bottom of the hypothalamus at the base of the brain. The ...

s of cadavers, when other research groups were extracting the same hormones from urine. The hormones Butt isolated were considered so pure compared to other isolates that they were used as references in the standardisation of hormones. In the 1960s he also pioneered a programme that treated infertile women who had

ovarian failure Primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) (also called premature ovarian insufficiency, premature menopause, and premature ovarian failure) is the partial or total loss of reproductive and hormonal function of the ovaries before age 40 because of fol ...

with his isolates of follicle-stimulating hormone. Butt served as a Special Professor in Clinical Endocrinology at the

University of Nottingham , mottoeng = A city is built on wisdom , established = 1798 – teacher training college1881 – University College Nottingham1948 – university status , type = Public , chancellor ...

from 1968 and as Honorary Professor of Endocrinology at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...

from 1976. He received the Wellcome Prize in Clinical Chemistry in 1978 and the

Society for Endocrinology The Society for Endocrinology is an international membership organisation and registered charity representing scientists, clinicians and nurses who work with hormones. The Society was established in 1946, and currently has approximately 2,500 mem ...

's Silver Plate in 1989. He was the author of six books, including the popular reference text ''Hormone Chemistry'' (1967), and over 250 journal articles. From 1965, he was a consultant to the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of ...

, providing advice to developing countries on opening laboratory services.

Retirement and death

Butt retired in 1987 to Stratford-upon-Avon. He died in 2006.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Butt, Wilfrid 1922 births 2006 deaths English biochemists British endocrinologists People educated at Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School Alumni of the University of London Scientists from Southampton People from Rochester, Kent Academics of the University of Nottingham Academics of the University of Birmingham