Professor Oliver Wrong

  • Professor Oliver Wrong (1925-2012)
Date:
1946 - 2016
Reference:
PP/WRO
  • Archives and manuscripts

About this work

Description

Wrong's papers cover his research from the 1950s until his death in 2012, with some posthumous publications, and fall largely into the following categories:

  • Research files on specific kidney conditions
  • Correspondence with professional colleagues
  • Approx. 20 research notebooks, 1950s-1970s (including his 'gold standard' renal tubular acidosis test work, 1959 and his faecal dialysis test, 1960s, which involved much self-experimentation)
  • Series of files arranged by patient, 1970s-1990s (including laboratory notes, clinical correspondence, photographs, pedigrees etc.)
  • Illustrative materials: lecture slides (topics mainly noted) and x-rays (used as basis for slides to illustrate key conditions)
  • 90 minute video interview conducted by Michela Wrong with her father in 2009, in which he reflects on his own career and outlines his ideas for the future of nephrology research
  • Oliver Wrong's 48 page memoir on his reasons for going into 'salt and water' medicine
  • File of research materials and lecture notes relating to Wrong's article 'Osler and My Father, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 2003 September; 96(9): 462-464, including letters from Sir William Osler to Murray Wrong (Oliver Wrong's father) concerning the latter's heart problems, early 1900s
  • 2004 DVD interview with Dr K S Chugh, Emeritus Professor of Nephrology, National Kidney Clinic & Research Centre, Chandigargh, India, in which Dr Chugh refers to his training and work with Oliver Wrong.
  • Please note that this archive contains a significant amount of patient medical data that is highly sensitive in nature. Patient data will require closure or restriction for the lifetime of the data subjects in accordance with the 1998 Data Protection Act. For information on how the library handles sensitive archival data, see our Access to Archives policy.

    Michela Wrong, one of Professor Wrong's daughters, and Anthony Norden, one of Wrong's colleagues, prepared a Guide to the Catalogue that can be found within this collection and is referred to throughout the catalogue itself (PP/WRO/A/5). Their notes provide relevant anecdotes, connections between material and Wrong's areas of research, and descriptions of material to assist the researcher in their work.

    Publication/Creation

    1946 - 2016

    Physical description

    54 Boxes, 1 O/S item

    Arrangement

    The collection is divided into sections as follows:

    A: Biographical (comprising A: 1, Autobiography, A: 2, Guide to the Contents of the Research Archive, A: 3, Photographs, A:4, Obituaries, and A:5 Biographical Digital Material Including an Interview with Michela Wrong, Daughter):

    B: Research and Clinical (comprising B:1, dRTA (Distal Renal Tubular Acidosis), B:2, Dent's Disease, B:3, Southeast Asian Ovalocytosis, B:4, Faecal Dialysis, B:5, Sevelamer, B:6, Patient Files, B:7, X-Rays, CT Scans and Photographs, B:8, Nephrocalcinosis, B:9, Sir William Osler, B:10, Other, B:11, Wrong Digital Material).

    C: Lectures, Conferences and Teaching (comprising C.1, Prepared Talks; C.2, PhD Supervision; C.3, Teaching and Research Posts; C.4, and Lecture Slides and Index Cards).

    D: Published Papers (listed individually).

    E: Correspondence (listed individually).

    Acquisition note

    Given to the library at Wellcome Collection by Marilda and Michela Wrong, June 2013

    Biographical note

    Professor Oliver M. Wrong (7 Feb 1925-24 Feb 2012) was an eminent academic nephrologist (kidney specialist) and one of the founders of the speciality in the United Kingdom. He was born into a family of eminent Oxford and Canadian historians, but embraced science instead, belonging to the generation of idealistic young doctors responsible for the establishment of the UK's National Health Service in the post-War years.

    He worked under Charles E Dent at University College Hospital (UCH) until 1961, when he was made senior lecturer at the Hammersmith Hospital. He moved to Dundee in 1969 and returned to UCH in 1972 as Professor of Medicine.

    From a background as a 'salt and water' physician he made detailed clinical observations and scientifically imaginative connections which were the basis of numerous advances in the molecular biology of the human kidney. Though academic in his leanings, he was a compassionate physician who established a warm rapport with patients. He regarded this link as the keystone of his research, and placed great emphasis on the importance of talking to his patients in order to gain insights into their conditions. He was also skilled in collaborating with and synthesising data from colleagues, and read very widely around his subject, approaches reflected in the correspondence and background materials in his research files.

    A striking characteristic of Wrong's career was his readiness to experiment upon himself and members of his family, including his wife. The archive contains an experiment in water intoxication Wrong conducted upon himself as a young man (complete with before-and-after photos) and the only remaining examples of the "Wrong bags" (for faecal dialysis). The entries in his laboratory notebooks make this reliance on self-experimentation explicit.

    Wrong's archive charts the transformation of nephrology through the 20th and 21st centuries. His work began as traditional clinical observation of disease, in a way that would be recognisable in the 19th century or earlier. His work then became, in his lifetime, the basis of numerous advances in the molecular biology of medicine, to which he directly contributed. His later research materials trace growing genetic understandings and analyses of the medical conditions that he had been following in specific patients for decades.

    Wrong's papers complement the archive of his mentor C E Dent (Wellcome Library collection PP/CED) in that they document Dent's and Wrong's shared research into the hereditary kidney disease named by Wrong as 'Dent('s) Disease'. Dent had recognised the condition in the 1960s but it was Wrong's subsequent clinical and laboratory observations of his and Dent's patients that enabled him to elucidate the chemical basis of the condition. This research formed the basis of major advances in the molecular biology of the kidney tubule and was a landmark in nephrology.

    For further details of Professor Wrong's career, see his many obituaries including:

  • http://www.nature.com/ki/journal/v82/n2/full/ki2012183a.html
  • http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/apr/26/oliver-wrong
  • Related material

    At Wellcome Collection: Papers of C E Dent (collection reference PP/CED)

    Terms of use

    This collection has been catalogued and is available to library members. Some items have access restrictions which are explained in the item-level catalogue records.

    Ownership note

    Wrong maintained in his study at home a large collection of clinical notes, file cards, laboratory findings and correspondence as well as other research materials such as X-Rays, 35 mm slides and some laboratory artefacts (such as the 'Wrong bags'). This material spanned the time from the early 1950s until his death in 2012. Although Wrong kept computer files on much of his later work and correspondence, most was printed out and is included in the archive. The written material was largely organised into folders or bound laboratory books. Although Wrong was known to keep original extensive hospital notes from University College Hospital for research in his study, he returned almost all of these and there are virtually no original notes in the collection. The archive includes original copies of almost all his 270 journal articles; many of these journals no longer exist so the papers are not available on-line except in abstract form.

    Permanent link

    Identifiers

    Accession number

    • 1992
    • 2292