Professor Caroline Ogilvie OBE, the clinical cytogeneticist whose work at Guy's Hospital shaped preimplantation and prenatal genetic diagnosis in the UK, has died. Her obituary in BioNews, written by Professor Dusko Ilic, was published on 28 September 2026. BioNews

Across a career of around half a century, much of it at Guy's Hospital, London, Professor Ogilvie helped bring one new technology after another into clinical use:

• fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) at Guy's in the 1990s
• quantitative fluorescence PCR for rapid prenatal diagnosis of conditions such as Down's syndrome
• on-screen karyotyping and array comparative genomic hybridisation
• a national preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) service for chromosome rearrangements

She published more than 200 scientific papers and mentored generations of clinical scientists, many of them women who went on to senior roles. She was appointed OBE in the 2025 King's Birthday Honours for services to patients with genetic disorders. She continued voluntary work after her formal retirement. BioNews

For embryologists, her legacy is practical. In the UK, embryo testing for families carrying chromosome rearrangements builds on the service she helped establish. She also helped develop preimplantation genetic haplotyping to widen access to PGD for single-gene disorders.

For more on embryo testing today, see the International IVF Initiative session PGT: 360 Degrees.

Sources

28 September 2026. BioNews

• Obituary: Professor Caroline Ogilvie OBE

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Reproduced from BioNews with permission, a web- and email-based source of news, information and comment on assisted reproduction and human genetics, published by Progress Educational Trust.