Session 58: SARS COV-2 in Assisted Reproduction

Ilan Tur-Kaspa, MD, an internationally known specialist in Reproductive Medicine and Infertility. He is the Founder & Medical Director of the Institute for Human Reproduction (IHR) in Chicago and Oakbrook, IL, and Valparaiso, IN. He specializes in personalized advanced ART, reproductive imaging, fertility preservation, and IVF/ICSI for PGT.

Dr. Tur-Kaspa is the 2020-2021 Chair of the Reproductive Imaging Special Interest Group of the ASRM. He is the author/coauthor of >110 peer reviewed scientific publications and book chapters, and he is a co-Editor of the books on “Ultrasound Imaging in Reproductive Medicine” (2014, 2019) and “Biotechnology of Human Reproduction” (2003). Dr. Tur-Kaspa served as a Professor at the REI Division, Dept of OB/GYN, The University of Chicago, and as the President of the Chicago Association of Reproductive Endocrinologists.

His recent publication: Tur-Kaspa et al. COVID-19 May Affect Male Fertility but is Not Sexually Transmitted: A Systematic Review, Fertility & Sterility Reviews (2021)

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)

Jason E. Swain, PhD, HCLD is the Corporate Laboratory Director of the CCRM IVF Laboratory Network, overseeing a growing network of 11 clinical IVF laboratories in North America. He is responsible for laboratory design, protocol/procedure implementation, as well as staff training and ongoing quality control monitoring for the network embryology, andrology and endocrinology laboratories. Jason also oversees quality control of the CCRM Donor Egg Bank. Dr. Swain is an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Rutgers University as well as at the University of Minnesota. He completed his BSc at Hillsdale College in his native Michigan, his MSc in Animal Science at Purdue University and his PhD in Molecular & Integrative Physiology at the University of Michigan in the lab of Dr. Gary Smith, PhD, HCLD. He then had clinical embryology training with Thomas “Rusty” Pool in San Antonio, TX, before becoming a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of OB/GYN and IVF lab director at the University of Michigan. Dr. Swain has published over 45 peer-reviewed articles, edited and authored several book chapters and contributed to various other publications within the field of assisted reproduction. Dr. Swain has served on various committees for ASRM, ESHRE, PCRS and other organizations focused on assisted reproduction. He has given numerous regional, national and international invited lectures on various topics related to the IVF laboratory, is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics, sits on the editorial board for 6 journals and acts an ad hoc reviewer for over 25 others. His primary research interests include pursuit of methods to improve in vitro embryo culture conditions through reduction of environmental stressors via modification of both the physical and chemical culture environment.


 

DR. FILIPPO ZAMBELLI 

Filippo Zambelli graduated in Biotechnology from the University of Bologna, and received a joint PhD from the University of Teramo and the Free University of Brussels. His early studies focused on human embryonic stem cells differentiation propensity, and then he developed a special interest in the (mitochondrial) genetic makeup of embryonic stem cells, oocytes and embryos. After the PhD, he joined the basic research lab of Clinica Eugin where he is currently working as a staff Scientist, mainly focusing on the interplay between mitochondria and transcriptomic changes in oocytes.

PROF. ALAN PARKER 

Professor in Translational Virotherapies at Cardiff University / Prifysgol Caerdydd. Has a long standing interest in virology and how this can be applied to cancer therapies using "oncolytic" adenoviral based vectors ("virotherapy"), that stems back to his PhD (in Gene Therapy from CRUK Institute for Cancer Studies at the University of Birmingham) leading an expanding and talented group developing bespoke virotherapies for oncology applications.
Skilled in Molecular Biology, Virology, Cell Culture, Scientific Writing, and Western Blotting and with a strong profile of peer reviewed publications in leading international journals.