A NEWPORT scientist leading a team which has brought new hope to childless couples has told how he had to battle for funding.

He says that funding "big guns" did not believe he would succeed in identifying an essential molecule in sperm which triggers the development of an egg.

But Professor Tony Lai, originally from Newport, and his team - including two other scientists from the city - made the news across the world when they discovered which gene triggers the human reproduction process.

The breakthrough could help in fertility treatment and development of a male contraceptive.

Prof Lai, chairman of cell signalling at the University of Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff, said: "Money for research is decided by an anonymous peer review system and we had a hard time staying on track because of difficulties getting funding.

"We had to do it slowly, the hard way, scraping any support we could get." But that made their success all the more sweet.

"Those who didn't support us are probably crying in their beer now," he said. "The view we held, that the sperm itself holds the signal, was a minority view. Others thought the message was within the egg and it was unlocked by the sperm contacting the egg.

"People in the States were angry about our idea and thought we were completely wrong. They thought they had it all sewn up although they didn't have hard scientific evidence."

What happens when an egg and sperm meet was identified as an issue to be resolved more than 200 years ago. Prof Lai had been researching the matter for about ten years. He moved to the Wales Heart Research Institute at the college in 1998 and said: "I had been going up the wrong alleys, trying various ways of identifying the molecule.

"After I moved here I decided a fresh move meant a fresh job and tried a new way of doing it. To some degree that may have assisted in our eventual success."

Dr Lynda Blaney, who lives near Newport Civic Centre, joined him, and the professor also took on Dr Chris Saunders, a former pupil at Rougemont School, who had just finished his Phd, bringing the team to eight. "I was confident from the time I started things were sliding into place like a jigsaw puzzle," Prof Lai said.

* Pictured: Professor Tony Lai, front, with Dr Chris Saunders and Dr Lynda Blaney