Session 46: My Mosaic Embryo

Dr. Manuel Viotti is Senior Scientist at the Zouves Foundation for Reproductive Medicine. He heads the research efforts to improve outcomes in the IVF clinic, with a special focus on molecular and cell biology of the embryo and uterine environment. He earned his PhD in developmental biology from Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences and the Sloan-Kettering Institute (New York, NY), and then joined the biotechnology company Genentech (San Francisco, CA) as a Postdoctoral Researcher.
He became involved with the establishment of the Zouves Foundation (Foster City, CA) in 2017, and since then the scientific work of his group has featured in Fertility and Sterility, Human Reproduction, RBMO, JARG, and others. He also engages in clinical embryology and PGT-A and holds accreditations from ASCP(MB) and ABB(TS).

Dr. Harton received his Bachelor of Science degree from James Madison University and his Ph.D. at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. His thesis title was Facilitating the widespread use of preimplantation genetic diagnosis and screening through best practice and novel technology development.
After 20+ years serving in various roles, including both clinical laboratory and management positions, he began his commercial career performing Business Development and Market Development roles with two prominent genetics companies, a fertility start up and a large reference genetics laboratory. Gary has been involved in a number of exciting breakthroughs in the field of reproductive genetics including performing the first clinical preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for an autosomal dominant disease (Marfan syndrome) and performing the first clinical PGD for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). In addition, Dr. Harton was involved in the team that pioneered non-disclosing Huntington disease PGD where a patient at risk for HD could ensure that their children were free from the mutation without discovering their own HD status. He was also involved in the team that discovered and patented Karyomapping, a revolutionary new technology allowing practically any genetic defect to be diagnosed in embryos using one single array-based test.
Dr. Harton is certified by the American Board of Bioanalysis (ABB) as a Technical Supervisor, in Molecular Diagnostics and is a member of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) as well as the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE), and Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis International Society. Dr. Harton is currently a member of the board of directors for PGD-IS, and a member of the Special Advisory Group for UK-NEQAS which performs external quality assessment schemes for preimplantation genetics. He has also served as Chair of the Steering Committee for the ESHRE PGD and has been an author on numerous peer reviewed scientific articles, abstracts and book chapters as well. Dr. Harton holds teaching positions at the Eastern VA Medical School (Norfolk, VA), the University of Kent (Canterbury, UK) and Bryant University (Smithfield, RI).

Dr. Mina Popovic received her PhD from Ghent University, Belgium, investigating the impact of chromosomal instability on early human development. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked as a clinical embryologist for over five years, at Genea (previously Sydney IVF) in Sydney, Australia. She is currently a researcher at Clinica Eugin in Barcelona, involved in projects relating to preimplantation genetic testing, in vitro models of human peri-implantation development and reproductive aging. She is deputy of the ESHRE special interest group Stem Cells and is passionate about improving patient outcomes through evidence-based ART.

Jacques Cohen is a reproductive biologist, laboratory product developer and high complexity laboratory director (HCLD). He is director and founder of the ART Institute of Washington, which runs the joint National Institute of Health and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center IVF program in Bethesda Maryland (USA). He is product developer and co-founder of IVFqc/Althea Science, which develops software solutions for laboratories and clinics. He was co-founder of Reprogenetics, a PGD service, now continuing as Cooper Genomics. He was a co-founder and product developer of Life-Global/IVF-Online. He has (co-)authored more than 300 publications, several textbooks and 12 patents. He is Emeritus Chief Editor of Reproductive Biomedicine Online. He was one of the founders of Alpha – Scientists in Reproductive Medicine and one of the founders of Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis International Society - PGDIS. He is a founding member of the International IVF Initiative.