Session 83: The Ministry of Embryology and Implantation

Daniel’s previous interests aimed to define the factors contributing to development of animal oocytes and embryos competences. His special interest was to block meiotic maturation reversibly in order to prolong an ongoing transcriptional activity and to improve the oocytes developmental competences.
After moving from animal research to human IVF his interests were devoted to improving micromanipulative techniques of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and biopsy methods used for preimplantation genetic testing in human embryos.
The next period of Daniel’s studies were devoted to intravital observation methods (polarised microscopy (PLM) and fluorescent chromosome staining by Hoechst) to describe the pre- and post-fertilisation periods of human oocyte/embryo development.
Hlinka’s latest publications are devoted to defining and automation of detection of embryonic developmental features and clinical diagnostic markers using time-lapse imaging and computational processing. Moreover, he have designed the two ecosystems for reproductive data collection: Fertilitypedia  and CATI automated embryo grading of time-lapse records. He is presently science specialist at Repromeda
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Thorir finished his Ph.D. on human gametes and embryos in 1997. After that he worked as an embryologist in Gothenburg for almost 20 years. He currently is holding a position as clinical investigation manager at Vitrolife.

Csaba currently is senior scientist at Vitrolife Ltd., and principal investigator, senior lecturer at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Genetics, in Budapest, Hungary. He is a doctor of veterinary medicine, with PhD in assisted reproduction. One of his main research interests is cell stress, his patent applications are granted all around the globe for the method to precondition cells with controlled stress. Cell stress research has taken his team to develop an automated time-lapse system that allows complete stress free, continuous observation of embryos and stem cells inside of the incubator. This development has opened up a new field of research, live cell imaging and evaluation algorithms. Recently he is involved in related clinical studies within Vitrolife`s research team, where he is also responsible for evaluating new technologies.

Lorena Bori is predoctoral PhD candidate researcher at IVIRMA Global Valencia under the supervision of Dr. Marcos Meseguer. She received her biological degree in 2016 and the Master degree in Biotechnology of Human Assisted Reproduction in 2018 at University of Valencia, Spain.
The primary field of her research is embryo evaluation and selection with non-invasive methodologies, especially through artificial intelligence. In her early career as a researcher, she has presented 5 oral communications at ASRM and ESHRE congresses and has participated in more than 45 communications in national and international meetings. She has authored/co-authored 6 scientific papers and wrote 3 book chapters.

Dr. Morbeck is the Chief Scientific Officer of Kindbody, Inc., and is an Honorary Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Monash University. Dean was also an Associate Professor at the Mayo Clinic, and prior to that he was in private practice in the US for over 10 years. He obtained his PhD from North Carolina State University and his MBA from Augsburg College. His research has focused on quality in the laboratory – from culture media, protein and oil, to how embryologists grade and decide to use blastocysts.

DR. MINA ALIKANI