Honor Fell

Honor Fell
Born Honor Bridget Fell
(1900-05-22)22 May 1900
Died 22 April 1986(1986-04-22) (aged 85)
Nationality British
Fields Zoology, physiology, cell biology
Institutions Strangeways Research Laboratory
Alma mater University of Edinburgh
Academic advisors Thomas Strangeways
Known for Directing Strangeways Research Laboratory, developing tissue culture technique
Fell as a young woman.

Dr Dame Honor Bridget Fell, DBE, Ph.D, D.Sc, FRS[1] (22 May 1900 – 22 April 1986) was a British scientist and zoologist. Her contributions to science included the development of experimental methods in organ culture, tissue culture, and cell biology.[2][3][4]

Early life and education

Fell was born in Yorkshire on 22 May 1900, the youngest of eight children. She was educated at Wychwood School, North Oxford and later at Madras College. Both school and family records highlight her childhood love of pet ferrets.[1] In 1918, she began undergraduate study in zoology at the University of Edinburgh, advised by Francis Albert Eley Crew. Crew recommended Fell as a summer researcher to Cambridge pathologist Thomas Strangeways, who was working in the then-new field of tissue culture. When Fell graduated in 1922 and found no open scientific positions in Edinburgh, she began work full-time as a research assistant to Strangeways. She earned a Ph.D. in 1924 entitled Historical studies on the gonads of the fowl[5] and a D.Sc in 1932.[1][6]

Strangeways Research Laboratory

After Thomas Strangeways' unexpected death in 1926, the future of his research facility, then known as the Cambridge Research Hospital, was in doubt. After advocacy by Fell and collaborator F.G. Spear, the institution's trustees decided to keep the research group open, with funding from the Medical Research Council. Fell was named the new director in 1928 and the institution's name was changed to the Strangeways Research Laboratory in honor of its founder.[7][8] Fell served as director until 1970 when she was succeeded by Michael Abercrombie. During that time, she also maintained an active research program in tissue and organ culture.[8]

Although the laboratory was never well-funded—Fell described the funding situation at one point as "something of a nightmare"[9]:250—it developed an international reputation for tissue culture, cell biology, and radiobiology, and attracted large numbers of visiting scientists; in one tabulation, visitors from 32 different countries were recorded.[1] During the 1930s Fell took particular interest in finding positions for scientists arriving as refugees from continental Europe.[1] As a rare example of a woman in senior scientific management of the time, Fell is also noted for supporting scientific careers for women at Strangeways.[10] Fell's skill in networking and administration is widely considered a major contributor to the success of the laboratory.[1][8]

Retirement

In retirement Fell once again took up the immunobiology of rheumatoid disease. She returned to Strangeways in 1979 and remained there, still working in the laboratory, until shortly before her death in 1986.[8]

Tissue and organ culture methods

Fell's work area at Strangeways, ca. 1950.

Fell's career began during the early stages of the development of tissue culture as a method for working with living cells. This enabled scientists to study living differentiated cells in environments that resembled the behaviour of organs in the animal body. The transition from histological examination of fixed, stained tissues to observation of living cells attracted great enthusiasm when the techniques were first developed, although their utility was somewhat controversial among scientists during the early days. Tissue culture also attracted significant popular media interest, with contemporary reports describing Fell as a woman working on "cultivating life in bottles" and tissue culture as leading to the growth of human babies in test tubes.[11]

Personal life

Fell lived alone during her working life and never married or had children. She enjoyed travel for scientific events and conferences.[1] She was considered friendly and collaborative, and her skills at encouraging collaboration among scientists have been described as critical to the success of Strangeways during her directorship.[8]

Affiliations and awards

Honor Bridget Fell (1966)

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Vaughan, Dame Janet (1987). "Honor Bridget Fell. 22 May 1900-22 April 1986". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 33: 236–226. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1987.0009. JSTOR 769952. PMID 11621435.
  2. ↑ Poole, A. R. (1989). "Honor Bridgett Fell, Ph.D., D.Sc. F.R.S., D.B.E., 1900-1986. The scientist and her contributions". In vitro cellular & developmental biology : journal of the Tissue Culture Association 25 (5): 450–453. doi:10.1007/bf02624631. PMID 2659579.
  3. ↑ Poole, A. R.; Caplan, A. I. (1987). "An appreciation. Dame Honor B. Fell, F.R.S. (1900-1986)". Developmental Biology 122 (2): 296–299. doi:10.1016/0012-1606(87)90295-8. PMID 3297855.
  4. ↑ Lasnitzki, I. (1986). "Dame Honor Fell FRS (1900–1986)". Nature 322 (6076): 214. doi:10.1038/322214a0. PMID 3526159.
  5. ↑ Fell, Honor. "Historical studies on the gonads of the fowl : the histological basis of sex reversal". Edinburgh Research Archive. The University of Edinburgh. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  6. ↑ "Obituary: Dame Honor Fell, DBE, FRS (1900-1986)". Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases 46 (3): 264. March 1987. doi:10.1136/ard.46.3.264. PMC 1002116.
  7. ↑ "Strangeways Research Laboratory". Srl.cam.ac.uk. 5 August 2010. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Hall, LA (April 1996). "The Strangeways Research Laboratory: archives in the contemporary medical archives centre.". Medical History 40 (2): 231–8. doi:10.1017/s0025727300061020. PMC 1037097. PMID 8936063.
  9. ↑ Shils, Edward; Blacker, Carmen (1995). Cambridge women : twelve portraits (1. publ. ed.). Cambridge [u.a.]: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521483445.
  10. ↑ "The Honor Fell papers". Wellcome Library. Archived from the original on 9 December 2015. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  11. ↑ Wilson, D (August 2005). "The Early History of Tissue Culture in Britain: The Interwar Years.". Social history of medicine : the journal of the Society for the Social History of Medicine / SSHM 18 (2): 225–243. doi:10.1093/sochis/hki028. PMC 1397880. PMID 16532064.
  12. ↑ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter F" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 29 July 2014.

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