The Nobel Prizes in science and medicine typically recognize the collaborative nature of modern science by recognizing groups of individuals that contributed towards a significant breakthrough. This year, however, the Physiology or Medicine prize is going to a single individual, Robert Edwards, for his efforts in developing in vitro fertilization (IVF). Although Edwards had many key collaborators over the years, his focus on fertilization started in graduate school and spanned decades before culminating in the birth of the first “test tube baby,” Louise Brown, in 1978. There are now approximately 4 million individuals alive due to IVF procedures.

Edwards got his start by studying mouse fertilization, which forced him to adjust to the nocturnal animals’ reproductive cycle. Apparently getting weary of trudging into the lab at midnight, he began to experiment with manipulating the mouse’s ovulation using hormones, eventually enabling him to perform his work at saner hours. IVF is now a key part of modern genetic work, like the generation of knockout and transgenic mice, so Edwards made a significant contribution by this point; he was nowhere close to finished, though.

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In Vitro Fertilization delivers Medicine Nobel Prize