Sir Robert Edward Dies

Robert Edwards, a British Nobel prize-winning scientist who pioneered the development of "test tube babies" conceived through in-vitro fertilization (IVF), died on Wednesday after a long illness, his university said.

Edwards, who won the Nobel prize for medicine in 2010, started work on fertilization in the 1950s, and the first so-called test tube baby, Louise Brown, was born in 1978 as a result of his pioneering research.

He founded the world's first IVF clinic in his home town of Cambridge, eastern England in 1980.

"It is with deep sadness that the family announces that Professor Sir Robert Edwards, Nobel prize winner, scientist and co-pioneer of IVF, passed away peacefully in his sleep," Cambridge University said in a statement.

It said he would be greatly missed by family, friends and colleagues, adding "his work has had an immense impact throughout the world."