Background & Experience
Education:
1954 - 1959: U.K. Grammar School system (Cambridge, England); 5 years Latin and French languages, biology, chemistry.
1967: B.A. degree in Natural Sciences (Physiology) from University of Cambridge.
1972: Ph.D. in Marshall Laboratory of Reproduction, University of Cambridge.
1974 - 1975: Post-doctoral training with Professor Ryuzo Yanagimachi, University of Hawaii.
1976 - 1978: UCLA School of Medicine in Torrance, California investigating sperm motility factors.
1978 - 1979: Lecturer in Animal Physiology, University of California, Davis.
1979 - 2000: Assistant/Associate/Full Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center.
2000 – 2007: Freeport-McMoRan Endowed Chair of Conservation and Reproductive Biology, University of New Orleans.
Research interests:
General: physiology and biochemistry of gametes, fertilization and preimplantation embryogenesis in mammals, and embryonic stem cell biology.
1968: Collaborated with Professor R.G. “Bob” Edwards to fertilize human ova in vitro, a discovery that paved the way for the birth of Louise Brown in 1978.
1979 - 2000: Key accomplishments: Developed the first reliable procedures for IVF in monkeys, now in use worldwide, and production of the first genetically-documented IVF monkey “Petri” in 1983; showed that changes in intracellular pH are regulators of early mammalian embryo development; demonstrated that specific energy substrates and amino acids regulate embryo development, which provided the basis for the formulation of sequential culture media; provided the first evidence that timing of embryo development is critically important for viability; showed that mitochondrial distribution and/or activity changes during fertilization, and that these changes are perturbed in embryos that have poor or no developmental competence - artificially perturbing pHi produces similar developmental and subcellular changes. This work promises to provide new insights into the relationships between embryos and their culture environment, leading to improved culture media formulations.
Invited lectures, meetings, service
Since 1982, I have been an invited speaker at almost 100 national and international workshops, special lectures and symposia in 15 countries, including Gordon Conferences, Serono Symposia, Organon Symposia, and American Fertility Society/ American Society for Reproductive Medicine Post-Graduate courses. I am most often asked to speak on the extrapolation of basic animal experimental data to the improvement of human clinical IVF outcomes. I was the principal organizer/chairman for several national and international conferences and workshops, including two Serono Symposia, the International Embryo Transfer Society (IETS), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences/Kunming Institute of Zoology. I was on the Board of Directors of the Society for the Study of Reproduction, and the Board of Governors of the International Embryo Transfer Society. In 2001 I was elected vice-President of the International Embryo Transfer Society, and in 2002 I served as President of this Society. Sixteen students have received the M.S. and/or Ph.D. degrees in my laboratory, and 10 more students have received post-doctoral training.
Editing, reviewing and grant-writing experience
I have authored or co-authored 180 refereed journal articles, plus 27 book chapters and proceedings of scientific meetings, and edited 3 books, all on the topics of gamete biology, in vitro fertilization and embryo development. I compiled and edited several special issues of reproductive science journals, and served on the Editorial Boards of the journals Biology of Reproduction; In Vitro Fertilization and Embryo Transfer; Gamete Research/Molecular Reproduction and Development; and Reproduction, Fertility and Development. I was a member of several grant review panels for the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. My research has been continuously funded by the U.S. government since 1978, with a total award amount of over $9 million.
Thus, I have over 30 years of experience in scientific writing and in the art of submitting grant proposals, both as author and reviewer.
Representative publications:
Bavister, B.D., Edwards, R.G. and Steptoe, P.C. (1969) Identification of the midpiece and tail of the spermatozoon during fertilization of human eggs in vitro. J. Reprod. Fertil. 20:159-160.
Edwards, R.G., Bavister, B.D. and Steptoe, P.C. (1969) Early stages of fertilization in vitro of human oocytes matured in vitro. Nature (Lond.) 221:632-635.
Bavister, B.D. (1981) Substitution of a synthetic polymer for protein in a mammalian gamete culture system. J. exp. Zool. 217:45-51.
Bavister, B.D., Boatman, D.E., Collins, K., Dierschke, D.J. and Eisele, S.G. (1984) Birth of rhesus monkey infant after in vitro fertilization and non surgical embryo transfer. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 81:2218-2222.
Boatman, D.E. and Bavister, B.D. (1984) Stimulation of rhesus monkey sperm capacitation by cyclic nucleotide mediators. J. Reprod. Fertil. 77:357-366.
Bavister, B.D. (1989) A consistently successful procedure for in vitro fertilization of golden hamster eggs. Gamete Res. 23:139-158.
Seshagiri, P.B. and Bavister, B.D. (1991) Glucose and phosphate inhibit respiration and oxidative metabolism in cultured hamster eight-cell embryos: evidence for the "Crabtree effect". Molec. Reprod. Dev. 30:105-111.
Rose, T.A. and Bavister, B.D. (1992) Effect of oocyte maturation medium on in vitro development of in vitro fertilized bovine embryos. Molec. Reprod. Dev. 31:72-77.
Fischer, B. and Bavister, B.D. (1993) Oxygen tension in the oviduct and uterus of the rhesus monkey, hamster and rabbit. J. Reprod. Fertil. 99:673-679.
Jones, J.M., Lorton, S.P. and Bavister, B.D. (1995) Measurement of intracellular pH in mammalian sperm cells under physiological conditions. Cytometry 19:235-242.
Bavister, B.D. (1995) Culture of preimplantation embryos: facts and artifacts. Hum Reprod. Update 1:91-148.
Barnett DK, Kimura J and Bavister BD. (1996) Translocation of active mitochondria during hamster preimplantation embryo development studied by confocal laser scanning microscopy. Dev. Dynam. 205:64-72.
Lane M, Baltz JM, and Bavister BD. (1998) Regulation of intracellular pH in hamster preimplantation embryos by the Na+/H+ antiporter. Biol. Reprod. 59:1483-1490.
Squirrell JM, Schramm RD, Paprocki AM, Wokosin DL and Bavister BD. (2003) Imaging mitochondrial organization in living primate oocytes and embryos using multiphoton microscopy. Microsc. Microanal. 9:190-201.
Bavister BD. (2004) The role of animal studies in supporting human assisted reproductive technology. Reprod. Fertil. Dev. 16:1-10.
Bavister BD, Wolf DP, Brenner CA. Challenges of primate embryonic stem cell research. (2005) Cloning Stem Cells 7:1-13.
Nichols SM, Bavister BD, Brenner CA, Didier PJ, Harrison RM, Kubisch HM. (2005) Ovarian senescence in the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta). Hum. Reprod. 20:79-83.
Lonergan T, Brenner CA, Bavister BD. (2006) Differentiation-related changes in mitochondrial properties as indicators of stem cell competence. J. Cell. Physiol. 208:149-53.
Bavister BD . (2006) The mitochondrial contribution to stem cell biology. Reprod. Fertil. Dev. 18:829–838.