Outi Hovatta
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The Modern Laboratory
Outi Hovatta
She founded a Helsinki infertility clinic, helped make the case for one embryo, then gave the world new ways to grow stem cells.
Helsinki beginnings. Outi Hovatta was born in Helsinki in 1946. She qualified in medicine at the University of Helsinki in 1970 and gained her doctorate in 1973. In 1978 she became a specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology. She later added andrology, the medicine of male fertility.
A clinic of her own. In 1986 Hovatta founded the Infertility Clinic of the Family Federation of Finland and led it into the 1990s. She wrote widely on male infertility, including ways of retrieving sperm directly from the testis and epididymis for men who produce none in their semen. Her clinic was the home of the 1999 single embryo study in Room 7, on which she was senior author.
London and Stockholm. In the mid-1990s she worked at Hammersmith Hospital in London with Robert Winston and Kate Hardy. There she studied how to freeze human ovarian tissue and how to grow the tiny follicles inside it. She then became professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, and chief physician at its fertility unit in Huddinge.
Stem cells without animals. At Karolinska she turned to human embryonic stem cells, using embryos donated by IVF couples. In 2003 her team showed that ordinary human skin cells could support new stem cell lines, avoiding cells from mouse fetuses. Later work with colleagues grew stem cells on laminin, a human protein, free of animal products. These methods aimed to make future cell treatments safer for patients.
In 2005 she also joined the Regea stem cell centre at the University of Tampere. Finland named her expatriate Finn of the year in 2012. Her career ran in a straight line from the first days of an embryo to the hope of healing.
Also see: Sirpa Vilska, Aila Tiitinen, Christel Hydén-Granskog, Robert Winston, Kate Hardy
About the sources
- Yle, 'Tutkija Outi Hovatta' (born 1946; Helsinki medical licence 1970, doctorate 1973, specialist 1978; founded the Family Federation infertility clinic, worked there 1986 to 1997; Karolinska professor; Regea, Tampere, 2005; expatriate Finn of the year 2012), published 31 July 2018, https://yle.fi/a/20-272942
- EuroStemCell, profile: Outi Hovatta (Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Karolinska Institutet; chief physician, Fertility Unit, Karolinska University Hospital Huddinge; Family Federation clinic 1986 to 1995; Hammersmith 1995 to 1998), https://www.eurostemcell.org/node/377
- Svenska Wikipedia, 'Outi Hovatta' (born 3 January 1946, Helsinki; specialist in andrology 1991; Family Federation 1986 to 1997; professor at Karolinska 1999), citing Uppslagsverket Finland (2012), https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outi_Hovatta
- Svenlin J. 'Stamcellsmormor'. Forum för ekonomi och teknik, 29 March 2007, https://forum-mag.fi/stamcells%C2%ADmormor/
- Rodin S, Domogatskaya A, Ström S, et al., Tryggvason K. Long-term self-renewal of human pluripotent stem cells on human recombinant laminin-511. Nature Biotechnology 2010;28(6):611–615. PubMed 20512123, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20512123/
- Hovatta O, Mikkola M, Gertow K, et al., Ahrlund-Richter L. A culture system using human foreskin fibroblasts as feeder cells allows production of human embryonic stem cells. Human Reproduction 2003;18(7):1404–1409. Affiliation: Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge University Hospital. PubMed 12832363, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12832363/
- Vilska S, Tiitinen A, Hydén-Granskog C, Hovatta O. Elective transfer of one embryo results in an acceptable pregnancy rate and eliminates the risk of multiple birth. Human Reproduction 1999;14(9):2392–2395. Affiliation: Infertility Clinic, The Family Federation of Finland, Helsinki. PubMed 10469718, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10469718/
- Hovatta O, Wright C, Krausz T, Hardy K, Winston RM. Human primordial, primary and secondary ovarian follicles in long-term culture: effect of partial isolation. Human Reproduction 1999;14(10):2519–2524. PubMed 10527981, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10527981/
- Hovatta O, Silye R, Krausz T, et al., Winston RM. Cryopreservation of human ovarian tissue using dimethylsulphoxide and propanediol-sucrose as cryoprotectants. Human Reproduction 1996;11(6):1268–1272. Affiliation: Hammersmith Hospital, London. PubMed 8671438, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8671438/
- Hovatta O, Moilanen J, von Smitten K, Reima I. Testicular needle biopsy, open biopsy, epididymal aspiration and intracytoplasmic sperm injection in obstructive azoospermia. Human Reproduction 1995;10(10):2595–2599. PubMed 8567777, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8567777/
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Compiled with AI-assisted research and checked against the original sources. Not yet peer-reviewed. Corrections are warmly welcomed.
