IRR People: Professor Richard Anderson

So it took me a long time to get my final medical degree. And then I trained, largely here in southeast Scotland, and then went on to ultimately be a lecturer at the University in what was the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, headed by Andrew Calder in those days, in the old Centre for Reproductive Biology. It was on the corner of the Meadows, which was a wonderful place to be, a fantastic environment, to train and learn the ropes as a junior clinical scientist.

What made you want to stay in Edinburgh? 

The Centre for Reproductive Biology (or Centre for Reproductive Health as it is now) was always the preeminent place in the UK, if not the world, to study reproductive medicine. There was absolutely no question that this was the place to come to.

Even from those very early days in my PhD I became aware of that. And then when I found myself actually spending two years as a research fellow there in what was then the MRC Reproductive Biology Unit, and then staying on as a lecturer in the university department – it was just amazing.

What exciting things have you been working on this year?

One of the things that we're doing at the moment is actually a continuation of what I worked on when I first worked in the CRH, which was a male contraceptive trial, and at that time we were doing one with the World Health Organization.

My job was to recruit couples to a proper efficacy trial. So the men got injections on a weekly basis and then when their sperm counts became low enough, they used that as a contraceptive for a year. And actually, we’re doing very similar now but we’re using a gel as the suppressive agent. And then, again, couples are using that as their only contraception for a year.

So it's been a long road that's taken many, many, many years. But actually, the results of the current trial have been fantastically positive and we hope this will go on to a big phase three trial in the future. Then it could actually become clinical products.

How has the field of male contraception changed and developed since you started? 

Well, probably disappointingly little to be honest. We are, as I said, largely doing a similar cloud trial design as we did several decades ago. But ultimately, there's only one way to test out a contraceptive and that’s for people to use it and see how well it works.

But what has developed is that there is now a huge resurgence of interest in broader fields of novel methods of contraception for men - not just this hormonal approach, but a whole bunch of other non-hormonal approaches which are now also entering clinical trials. And that's been something that hasn't happened in the past. These have been animal experimentation type models, but now a number of them are entering clinical trials, which is also really positive.

Why is it important to have lots of different types of both hormonal and non-hormonal contraception available?

So the general principle of contraception is: you don't just have one method that you then expect everybody to use, and everyone to be happy with. The whole idea of contraception is providing a choice so couples find something that works for them. And that's the way you get lots of people using methods that they individually have chosen and are happy with, and are going to use reliably.

What are your hopes for the future of male contraception?

I think the key thing going forward from the current trial is for it to develop into a phase three study. And one of the issues with the field overall is there hasn't been a lot of commercial interest in it. It has been developed by, initially WHO, and now the current work is funded by the National Institute of Health (so essentially US government money).

What these things really need in order to move into the actual pre-launch stage is a commercial backer. And that doesn't need to be a big pharmaceutical company, it can be a smaller start-up that's focused on this particular product. That’s what the organizers need to do - find one that will put the money in to do the phase three trial.

What is it like balancing work as both a clinician and researcher? 

That's one of the real privileges of the job - you go and see patients. In my work, it's by being in the infertility clinic and the reproductive endocrinology clinic that you see problems there and you can shape your research around addressing those issues.

Another area that I work in is in fertility preservation. So I've been involved in that for a long time, taking pieces of ovarian tissue from young women who are facing cancer treatments and then storing them before they have treatments and then potentially putting them back. One of the things that's developed from that is that it’s gone from a purely research environment to very much a clinical practice. And there are now a lot of babies around the world born from that. 

We were lucky enough to be involved in the first UK baby from a young woman’s tissue that I was involved in storing. 11 years later, she came back and said she wanted a baby and we were able to make that happen for her, which was really wonderful.

As a professor, what do you enjoy about training the future generation of scientists?

It is great to see people who you've identified a number of years ago as being really bright young things turning into established scientists. And that's really important. You know, I saw how people were supporting me when I was training and helping things happen. It's very much your responsibility now to make it happen for others. And that is a really rewarding thing to see happen. 

Do you have any hobbies?

I do spend quite a lot of time horse riding, as colleagues will tell you. My wife and I had two small girls a number of years ago, and clearly my wife decided that this was an excuse for her to get back into the horse riding she had done as a young girl.

I became the classic pony club father hanging around, getting up early in the morning and dragging ourselves around to various places in Southeast Scotland. And I thought, well, if you can't beat them, you need to join them. So I've taken them myself and, yeah, spend a lot of time doing that, which is great fun.

What do you enjoy about working at the University?

It's always important to try to renew and refresh things in this job because I've obviously been here in Edinburgh for a long time and there are exciting new challenges. At the moment the issue is to make sure things that I've helped to develop over the years are now on a sound footing - that they will continue after me and that I can continue with them for a bit longer, to really make sure that Edinburgh stays at the forefront of Reproductive Health research.

What do you enjoy about working at the University?

It's always important to try to renew and refresh things in this job because I've obviously been here in Edinburgh for a long time and there are exciting new challenges. At the moment the issue is to make sure things that I've helped to develop over the years are now on a sound footing - that they will continue after me and that I can continue with them for a bit longer, to really make sure that Edinburgh stays at the forefront of Reproductive Health research.