William McBride (doctor)

Dr. William Leon McBride, (born 19 January, 1938), is a gynecologist and obstetrician, and has the current rank of professor. He is the Australian doctor who discovered the teratogenicity of thalidomide which resulted in the reduction of the number of drugs prescribed during pregnancy.

Dr. McBride published a letter in "The Lancet", in December 1961, noting a large number of birth defects in children of patients who were prescribed Thalidomide. [William McBride, Letter to the Editor, in "The Lancet", 16 December 1961.] Dr. McBride was awarded a medal and prize money by the French Government in connection with his discovery. Using the prize money he had won he established "Foundation 41", a Sydney-based medical research foundation concerned with the causes of birth defects. His most notable achievement with Dr P H Huang, was the discovery that Thalidomide caused malformations by interacting with the DNA of the dividing embryonic cells. This finding stimulated their experimentation which showed that Thalidomide may inhibit cell division in rapidly dividing cells of malignant tumors. This work was published in the journal "Pharmacology and Toxicology" in 1999. This work has been rated in the top ten of the most important Australian medical discoveries. (The Sydney Morning Herald - 2005)

Dr. McBride was struck off the Australian medical register in 1993 for falsifying data on a project. [http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg13718620.800-thalidomide-hero-found-guilty-of-scientific-fraud-.html] In 1994 Dr. McBride responded to these claims in his book, "Killing The Messenger". His theory that damage caused by thalidomide can be passed to children has proven highly controversial. [http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/315/7107/554] He was reinstated to the medical register in 1998. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,33714,00.html]

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