- Gregory Goodwin Pincus
Infobox Scientist
name = Gregory Goodwin Pincus
image_width =
caption =
birth_date = birth date|1903|4|9
birth_place =Woodbine, New Jersey , U.S.
death_date = death date and age|1967|8|22|1903|4|9
death_place =Boston , U.S.
residence = U.S.
citizenship = American
ethnicity =
field =Biology
work_institution =Harvard University
Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology
alma_mater =Harvard University
doctoral_advisor =
known_for =Combined oral contraceptive pill
prizes =Gregory Goodwin Pincus (
April 9 ,1903 -August 22 ,1967 ), American biologist and researcher, was co-inventor of thecombined oral contraceptive pill .Birth and education
He was born in
Woodbine, New Jersey into aJewish family, and he credited two uncles, both agricultural scientists, for his interest in research. He went toCornell University and received a bachelor's degree in agriculture in 1924. He attendedHarvard University where he was an instructor in zoology while also working toward his master's and doctorate degrees. From 1927 to 1930 he moved from Harvard toCambridge University in England to theKaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biology withRichard Goldschmidt inBerlin where he performed research. He became an instructor in general physiology atHarvard University in 1930 and was promoted in 1931 to an assistant professor.Research
Pincus began studying hormonal biology and steroidal hormones early in his career.
Pincus's first breakthrough came early, when he was able to produce
in vitro fertilization in rabbits in 1934.His experiments involving
parthenogenesis produced a rabbit that appeared on the cover ofLook magazine in 1937 and this and academic politics led to his not being granted tenure atHarvard University .In 1944, Pincus and
Hudson Hoagland founded theWorcester Foundation for Experimental Biology inShrewsbury, Massachusetts .In 1951,
Margaret Sanger met Pincus at a dinner hosted by Abraham Stone, director of the Margaret Sanger Research Bureau and medical director and vice president ofPlanned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), and procured a small grant from PPFA for Pincus to begin hormonal contraceptive research. Pincus, along withMin Chueh Chang , confirmed earlier research thatprogesterone would act as an inhibitor to ovulation.In 1952, Sanger told her friend
Katharine McCormick about Pincus and Chang's research. Frustrated by PPFA's meager interest and support, in 1953 McCormick and Sanger met with Pincus to dramatically expand the scope of the research with 50-fold increase in funding from McCormick.In order to prove the safety of "the pill," human trials had to be conducted. These were initiated on infertility patients of Dr.
John Rock inBrookline, Massachusetts using progesterone in 1953 and then three different progestins in 1954. Trials of the pill as a contraceptive could not be performed in Massachusetts because dispensing contraception there was a felony.Puerto Rico was selected as a trial site in 1955, in part because there was an existing network of 67 birth control clinics servicing low-income women on the island. Trials began there in 1956 and were supervised by Dr.Edris Rice-Wray . Some of the women experienced side effects from "the pill" (Enovid) and Rice-Wray wrote Pincus and reported that Enovid "gives one hundred percent protection against pregnancy" but causes "too many side reactions to be acceptable". Pincus and Rock disagreed based on their experience with patients in Massachusetts and conducted research showing that placebos caused similar side effects. The trials went on and were expanded toHaiti ,Mexico andLos Angeles despite high attrition rates, due to the large number of women eager to try this form of contraception. In May 1960, the FDA extended Enovid's approved indications to include contraception.Death
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