Session 140: Vitrification Unlocked
3pm ET/ 8pm UK/ 9pm CET, Tuesday 1st Oct 2024
This webinar is kindly sponsored by Cook Medical
Synopsis:
Session 140, *Vitrification Unlocked*, offered a comprehensive exploration of vitrification, led by a panel of renowned embryologists and industry leaders. Moderators Kanako Okamoto, Dr. Magdalena Depa-Martynow, and Giles Palmer guided the session, which featured a series of in-depth presentations from experienced lab managers and key opinion leaders. Dr. Jeremy Chang opened with a critical discussion on the dangers of devitrification, emphasizing the risks associated with improper handling of valuable biological material and offering strategies to mitigate these risks in the lab. Dr. Juergen Liebermann followed with a detailed analysis of oocyte and embryo vitrification, raising key concerns that embryologists should be aware of during the process, from preparation to post-thawing outcomes.
Eros Nikitos, a recognized expert in vitrification protocols, shared best practices that can be implemented to optimize the vitrification process, highlighting techniques that ensure the highest survival rates and overall success. Dr. Scot Hamilton wrapped up the presentations with his talk, *Lessons from the Campfire*, drawing on both scientific evidence and real-world experiences to provide practical lessons for embryologists, helping them avoid common pitfalls and enhance lab efficiency.
The session concluded with an interactive Q&A, allowing the live audience to engage directly with the experts. Attendees gained valuable insights into the latest advancements in vitrification, practical tips to improve their lab practices, and actionable advice aimed at enhancing outcomes in assisted reproductive technology. This unique opportunity enabled participants to learn from leaders in the field and apply these cutting-edge techniques to their own clinical settings, fostering a deeper understanding of the challenges and innovations in vitrification.
Moderators:
Kanako Okamoto
Dr. Magdalena Depa-Martynow
Giles Palmer
Presenters:
Dr. Jeremy Chang: Dangers of devitrification and handling of precious material
Dr. Juergen Liebermann: Vitrification of oocytes & embryos: Are there any factors we should be concerned about?
Eros Nikitos: Best practices of vitrification
Dr. Scot Hamilton: Lessons from the campfire
Q and A
Kanako Okamoto
Kanako Okamoto is a clinical specialist in Cook Reproductive Health. She had worked as a clinical embryologist in Japan for more than 10 years and concurrently researched biology and genetic aspects of endometrium stem cells. Before becoming an embryologist, her first experience of research was cryobiology for parasites in Kobe university, and this experience leaded her to human IVF.
Dr. Magdalena Depa-Martynow
Magdalena is an experienced embryologist. She was working more than ten years at Division of Infertility and Reproductive Endocrinology, Department of Gynecology, Obstetrics and Gynecological Oncology Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznan, Poland. Her interest at that time was predictive value of zygotes and early embryo assessment.
Magdalena received her Ph.D. at the Karol Marcinkiewicz University of Medical Sciences in Poznan in Poland. She was working on the determination the molecular basis of male infertility by indication of mRNA sperm transcripts and PRM1 and PRM2 proteins, which may influence on quality of human sperm, fertilization ability and early development of zygotes and embryos. She is an author of a numerous publications related with clinical embryology and assisted reproductive techniques.
Magdalena did a Canadian Executive Master of Business Administration study and obtained a diploma of ESG University of Quebec at Montreal UQAM and the Warsaw School of Economics SGH. She joined Reproductive Health, COOK Medical where, as a Clinical Specialist, she is combining scientific expertise with commercial knowledge in supporting both embryologists and internal company recipients.
Giles Palmer
Giles is a clinical embryologist, skilled in laboratory, business, and quality management. After graduating in Genetics at Leeds University, UK he worked as a research officer at London's Hammersmith Hospital's acclaimed IVF unit working with Professors Lord Winston and Alan Handyside. In the following years he worked as laboratory manager and clinic director in IVF clinics in Greece while consulting in several countries including Iceland, Nigeria, Albania, Bulgaria, and Romania. His research collaboration with St. Sophia' s Children's Hospital (Athens University) resulted in the first births in Greece following embryo-biopsy and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and the first ever PGT cycles screening for Beta Thalassemia.
He has published in leading scientific journals on a variety of topics including pre-implantation genetic testing for Cystic Fibrosis and B-thalassaemia, Morpho-kinetics, Quality Management and laboratory technology. He is a certified HCPC clinical scientist in the UK and has been accredited with Senior Embryologist Status by ESHRE. More recently, Giles, has become a consultant for IVF clinics, Institute of Life, Athens and Nordica Fertility Centre in Lagos and product developer in a wide range of areas within the Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) industry.
He is the executive director for the non-profit global educational project the International IVF Initiative (I3) which supports the ART community with webinars and lectures and Director of Global Communications for IVF 2.0 Ltd.
In his spare time, he spends with his family and perfecting playing the Toubeleki.
Dr. Jeremy Chang
Jeremy Chang obtained his BSc (1994) and MSc (1996) at the National Chung-Hsing University in Taiwan. From 1998 to 1999, he was an embryologist at Lee Women’s Hospital in Taiwan. Then he joined the xenotransplantation project of porcine cloning at the Animal Technology Institute, Taiwan (1999–2001). He joined the Center for Regenerative Biology at the University of Connecticut in 2001 and obtained his PhD in 2005. He is currently an embryologist at Reproductive Biology Associates, Atlanta, USA. His main research interests lie in the areas of oocyte biology.
Dr. Juergen Lieberman
Working in the field of IVF since 1995, Dr. Liebermann is the Director of Laboratory Services at the Chicago based Fertility Centers of Illinois partnered with the US Fertility | Ovation | RMA New York Network. He received his doctoral degree from the Technical University Munich in Bavaria/Germany in 1995 and his postdoctoral thesis in 2004 qualified him as a University Lecturer in Experimental Reproductive Medicine at the Bavarian University of Wuerzburg, Germany. He contributed more than 160 oral presentations at national and international meetings, and has authored more than 66 abstracts, papers book chapters in reproductive science. In 2007, and 2016 he co-authored a book with Dr. Michael Tucker titled Vitrification in Human Assisted Reproduction. He is a member of ASRM, ESHRE, and ABB. He also serves as an ad Hoc reviewer for Fertility & Sterility, Human Reproduction, Reproductive Biomedicine Online, and many more.
Eros Nikitos
Eros Nikitos is the laboratory director and senior embryologists for the Institute of Life IVF clinic , IASO Hospital in Athens, Greece. He is known for pioneering research in embryology, particularly in maternal spindle transfer (MST). He co-authored the first pilot study on MST aimed at treating idiopathic infertility and repeated IVF failures. This innovative technique involves transferring nuclear material between eggs to enhance fertility outcomes. Nikitos, along with his team at the Institute of Life, has over 20 years of experience in clinical embryology. His contributions have significantly advanced reproductive medicine, with successful births resulting from MST
Dr. Scot Hamilton
Dr. Hamilton is the Director of the Clinical Embryology Skills Development Laboratory (CESDL) and part of the team running the MHSC in Laboratory Medicine, Clinical Embryologist field.