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¿Quiénes somos?
Santiago Munné, Ph.D.
Santiago Munné, Ph.D. is co-founder of RG, and its current President.
Thereafter joined Dr. Jacques Cohen team at Cornell University Medical College, where he completed his post-doctoral training and worked on the development of PGD, holding the position of instructor in genetics. There his team performed the first PGD test for translocations as well as developed the first PGD test for aneuploidy and obtained the first live births worldwide for those tests. He is thus a pioneer of PGD for the detection of chromosome and genetic abnormalities.
Dr. Munne saw the opportunity to offer PGD not only to IRMS, but also to other IVF centers that wanted the technique but did not have the technology to do it themselves. Thus in 2001, Dr Munne, Cohen and Sable founded RG, and in 2002 Dr. Munne took the direction of the company full time.
Dr. Munné is distinguished in his field by many scientific honors, prizes and research grants, Dr. Munné has published nearly 200 articles on the subjects of PGD, outcomes in aneuploidy and translocation testing, genetics, genetic risks and abnormalities affecting human gametes and the reproductive process, for which he has received numerous prizes. Dr. Munne was instrumental in he creation of the International Society for Preimplantation Genetics Diagnosis (PGDIS), and a board member of it. He is also a member of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and is in the board of its SIG for PGD. He also is a founder of the journal Reproductive Biomedicine Online. In addition, Dr. Munné also participates in several national and international scientific committees, and is on the editorial board of two magazines. He is also a reviewer for a wide range of scientific medical journals.
Dr. Munne has been involved in the fields of reproductive medicine for almost 20 years, and has an extensive network of contacts, acquaintances, and friends in this field, both in the US and internationally.
Jacques Cohen, Ph.D.
Dr. Cohen is one of the founders of RG. He has been actively involved in treatment of infertile couples by assisted reproductive technology since 1976. Dr. Cohen earned his Ph.D. in reproductive physiology from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. He went to England in 1982 to join the team of Drs. Edwards and Steptoe, who obtained the first birth through IVF, or ‘test tube’ baby, at Bourn Hall Clinic near Cambridge. He was the senior embryologist at a time when the clinic was the largest and most progressive center of its kind in the world. While at Bourn Hall, he became the first to deep-freeze and later successfully thaw human blastocyst (a five day-old embryo). He also was the first to apply IVF to couples diagnosed with male-factor infertility. Dr. Cohen is considered among a very few of the most experienced human embryologists worldwide.
Between 1985 and 1990, he was affiliated with Emory University in the United States, and served as laboratory director of a private clinic in Atlanta. While there, he developed a number of techniques that revolutionized the practice of IVF. Together with two other scientists, he was the first to culture human embryos on a layer of so-called helper cells (co-culture) obtained from the reproductive tract of the bovine fallopian tube. He also was the first to apply micromanipulation on human eggs and embryos. The tools used in these procedures have microscopically small end-points to operate on eggs, sperm and embryos. This technology allowed him to develop and successfully apply techniques to promote fertilization (assisted fertilization) when sperm cannot normally fertilize the egg. This led to the development and application of several methods that are now routine worldwide. These include intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), which places a sperm inside the outer shell of the egg, biopsy which allows PGD on an extracted cell, and assisted hatching, which promotes pregnancy by initiating the hatching process following fertilization. Both assisted fertilization and hatching were invented by Dr. Cohen for patients who failed to become pregnant following IVF, and were perfected after he became scientific director at Cornell University Medical College in New York City in 1989. During his tenure at Cornell, Dr Cohen also collaborated with Dr. Munné and others on techniques for embryo biopsy, and research and technology that led to PGD testing of embryos. During 1995, Dr. Cohen, took over the ART laboratory at Saint Barnabas Medical Center. During his eight-year tenure at IRMS, Dr. Cohen and his team performed more than 8,000 IVF cycles and maintained one of the highest pregnancy rates in the country.
Dr. Cohen has published more than 200 scientific papers, and has also has been a frequent lecturer to present his team’s work nationally and internationally.
Dr. Cohen co-founded RG and serves today as a director, and later founded Galileo Laboratories where Dr. Cohen heads up a research team working on developing new technology in various areas related to human embryology.
Staff Biographies - US laboratories
LABORATORY PERSONNEL
Pere Colls, Ph.D., Lab Director
Dr. Colls joined RG in January 2002 and has currently the position of Laboratory director, accredited by CLIA and the NY department of health. Previously, he spent three years as an embryologist at Centro Hispalense de Reproduccion Asistida S.L. in Seville, Spain. Dr. Colls received a Bachelor in Biological Sciences in 1993 and a Ph.D. in Human Genetics in 1998, both from Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain. While working toward his post-graduate degree, he was an assistant professor in Human Genetics. Mr. Comas has published several research papers, and has presented at national and international meetings.
He is an excellent organizer and manager, and has been able to streamline and perfect production processes, and get RG certified to perform any PGD test in the only state where so far is regulated, NY, by the NYDH.
Dagan Wells, Ph.D., Assistant Lab Director
Dr. Dagan Wells is, together with Drs. Cohen and Munne, one of the key scientists in RG.
Dr. Wells has been involved in preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and the study of human gametes and embryos since 1992. Shortly after obtaining his PhD he was awarded a Medical Research Council Fellowship, during the course of which he successfully developed the first strategy for screening the entire set of chromosomes in single cells. The method utilized a combination of whole genome amplification and comparative genomic hybridisation (CGH) techniques and revealed the full extent of chromosome abnormalities in human eggs and embryos for the first time. He stayed on at the college as a Medical Research Council Research Fellow in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology until 1999. He worked in the UCL Centre for Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis from 1999 to 2002 before coming to the United States.
In 2000 he joined Reprogenetics. Shortly after his arrival he initiated the highly successful single gene PGD program at Reprogenetics, which has grown exponentially since its inception. He also obtained NIH funding to assess genes and chromosomes in human oocytes.
In 2003, he took a position at Yale University, where he spent four years as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, while remaining the co-director of the molecular laboratory of Reprogenetics. During that period Dagan and his group, in collaboration with Reprogenetics, began clinical trials of CGH applied to human oocytes and blastocysts, which have led to some of the highest IVF pregnancy rates recorded to date. Dagan and his research team relocated to the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Oxford at the end of 2007. The following year he assisted in setting up Reprogenetics-UK, a purpose built, state-of-the-art diagnostic laboratory, providing testing of gametes and embryos for IVF clinics in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe.
Dagan’s current research program is focused on increasing understanding of the molecular genetic processes underlying gametogenesis and preimplantation development. His laboratory has a strong translational emphasis and is actively involved in the development of optimized IVF technologies and novel PGD methods. Dagan’s work has been recognized with the award of several prizes, including the American Society for Reproductive Medicine General Program Prize (2000) and the publication of more than 70 papers in peer-review journals. He has attracted funding from multiple companies and public bodies, including the National Institutes of Health and Medical Research Council. Dagan is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Pathologists and serves on the editorial boards of several international medical journals.
Xue-Zhong Zheng, M.D., Lab supervisor
Dr. Zheng graduated from Zhongshan University School of Medicine in Guangzhou P.R. China in 1982. He did his postgraduate medical training at Beijing University School of Medicine in Beijing from 1983 to 1984 and then at University of Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in England from 1987 to 1988. Between his training, he served on the faculty of the Jinan University School of Medicine in Guangzhou, P.R. China from 1985 to 1987. He came to the United States as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Yale University School of Medicine from 1988 to 1992. He was a faculty member of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at Temple University School of Medicine from 1992 until 1997. Then he was a became a scientist performing ART procedures and PGD testing at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center. Dr. Zheng joined RG in 2004, after spending four years as a clinical scientist for the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science at Saint Barnabas Medical Center (IRMS at SBMC). He has extensive research experience in the areas of PGD, fertility, molecular biology and reproductive neuroendocrinology, and diabetes in pregnancy. Dr. Zheng is now a lab supervisor for the area of PGD using FISH. He is being groomed to become the lab director of a future PGD lab in China.
Tomas Escudero, M.Sc., Lab Supervisor
Mr. Escudero received a Master of Science degree from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona in 1994, and was an assistant professor of Cell Biology and Cytogenetics at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain from 1994 to 1997. From February to October of 1998, Mr. Escudero was a Cytogenetist at the Laboratorio F. Echevarne in Barcelona.
Mr. Escudero was recruited by Dr. Munne to be a scientific researcher at the IRMS from 1999 to 2003. In 2003 he joined RG and became the laboratory director of California branch, and when this was closed, moved back to NJ as Lab supervisor, for the area of PGD for translocations. He has published extensively about this sub-specialty and has a wealth of knowledge about translocations.
Jorge Sanchez Garcia, PhD
Mr. Sanchez joined RG in October 2005 as a Molecular PGD specialist. Prior to joining RG, Mr. Sanchez spent three years at the Centre de Transfusio i Banc de Teixits in Barcelona, Spain, performing molecular diagnosis and research on coagulation disorders. He received a Bachelor in Biological Sciences in 1997, a M.Sc. in Human Genetics in 1999 from Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain, and a PhD from the same program in 2008.
He is currently a laboratory supervisor for PGD of gene defects.
Other Lab personnel are Nneka Esprit-Nagatchou, Sophie Tomasi, and Renata Prates, whom joined RG in 2007-2008 and are junior technicians. Nneka is cross-trained in FISH and aCGH, and Sophie and Renata in PGD for gene defects and aCGH. All of them participate in research projects and are extremely enthusiastic and hard workers.
RESEARCH PERSONNEL
Cristina Gutierrez, Ph.D.
Dr. Gutierrez joined RG in October 2005 as a Molecular PGD specialist. She obtained a Bachelor in Biological Sciences in 2000 and a Ph.D. in Human Genetics in 2005 from Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain. While working toward her post-graduate degree, she was an assistant professor in Cell Biology.
He currently works as a senior tech in PGD for genetic diseases and array CGH, and is also a senior scientist. He has written many papers on CGH.
George Pieczenik, Ph.D.
Dr. Pieczenik obtained his AB in Harvard University, his MSc in 1967 in the University of Miami and his PhD in 1972 at New York University. From there he did his postdoctoral work at Rockefeller University from 1972-1975 in the lab of Drs. N. Zinder, R.Hotchkiss and H.Robertson, while also being a visiting scientist in the lab of F. Sanger, at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge University, UK (1970 to 1972). Then he became a visiting scientist of Dr. Sanger lab again in 1975-76, of Dr. F.Crisck and S. Brenner in 1977, Sanger and Brenner in 1978- 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1988-1990. He became a tenured associate professor of biochemistry at Rutgers University, NJ in 1982, position that he holds to the present.
He has received multiple awards: Harvard University Scholar 1964-5; Public Health Service Fellow 1965-7; New York University Fellow 1967-72; New York University, Founders Day Award; Dissertation Awarded with Highest Distinction; Rockefeller University, Schepp Foundation Fellow; Rutgers University, Best Course and Best Teacher, 1977; Rutgers University, Faculty Merit Award, 1978; Phillips Academy, Andover, MA - Claude Fuess Award; Shared with Drs. Benjamin Spock and Franz Ingelfinger, 1980; National Institute of Health General Medical Sciences, and the Research Career Development Award, 1977-83. In addition he has received multiple grants as PI: Public Health Service Grant GM 23550; National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Genotypic Selection 1977-85; Public Health Service Grant GM 00281; National Institute of General Medical Sciences: Career Development Award, 1977-82; Rutgers University Computer Grant: 1975-88 and Janowska Research Fund (1988-present).
Dr. Pieczenik holds multiple patents on biochemistry, among them the key ones to develop ligands.
In 2006 he became a part time senior researcher for RG in order to develop ligands for reproductive medicine and cancer. Ligands are small molecules that can be used as antibodies but are easy to make, cheaper and more permeable.
Dr. Munne, Cohen and Wells still develop most of the research projects in RG. In addition of them, Cristina Gutierrez, George Pieczenik, Tim Schimmel and Alexandra Sadowy are involved in research.
GENETIC COUNSELORS
Jill Fischer
Ms. Fischer has been the PGD Program Coordinator and genetic counselor for RG since 2004. She held the same titles at IRMS. Prior to joining IRMS, Ms. Fischer worked at Spectrum Health Genetic Services where she prepared and organized in-house and outreach pediatric genetics clinics, counseled patients regarding diagnosis, recurrence risks, testing options, test results and follow-up care. From 1993 to 1995, she was a Lecturer and Genetic Counselor at the Easter Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia. She received her undergraduate degree in Pre-medicine from Northwestern University in 1991 and a Master of Science degree in Genetic Counseling in 1993 from University of South Carolina.
A junior genetic councilor is Jessica DiPietro, whom joined RG in 2007.
CLIENT SERVICES
Kelly Ketterson
Ms. Ketterson joined RG in August 2004 and is the Director of Client Services and responsible for RG’s marketing effort. Ms. Ketterson has a Master in Biomedical Science at the Jones Institute at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia.
Previously, she spent nine years as clinical embryologist at IRMS, under the direction of Dr. Jacques Cohen, which allows her to have a great command of all aspects involved in IVF and PGD. Before joining IRMS she worked in sales for xxx.
She supervises Bekka Sellon Wright and Laurie Ferrara.
ACCOUNTING AND BILLING
Piedad Garzon, Office Manager
Piedad Garzon has been RG’s Office Manager since 2004. She has over six years of managerial and administrative experience in the health care industry. She received a Bachelor in Journalism and Social Communication from the Universidad Externado de Colombia in Bogota, Colombia, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from Baruch College. She supervises Maria Feldhaus.
XXII International Staff biographies
REPROGENETICS SPAIN
Mireia Sandalinas, M.Sc., co-Director, Founder.
Mireia Sandalinas is a Biology graduate and has a Masters degree in Biotechnology from the University of Barcelona. Mireia Sandalinas joined the research team of the Cellular Biology Unit of the Department of Cellular Biology, Physiology and Immunology of the Faculty of Sciences of the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 1992 under the direction of Dr. Josep Santaló. In 1994 she began her training as embryologist in the Institut Dexeus in Barcelona. In 1998 she joined the research team of Doctors Cohen and Munné in the PGD area at Saint Barnabas Medical Center, NJ. Since then her research has been focused on the study of aneuploidy and chromosomal disorders on embryonic development, as well as their effect on infertility. She has participated in over 2000 cycles of PGD. In 2000 she was nominated for the prize of promising young researcher (ESHRE, Bologna 2000), and finalist for the General Program Prize in the same year of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM, San Diego, 2000). In 2003 she moved back to Spain where she cofounded Reprogenetics Spain with Carles Giménez, Santiago Munné and Jacques Cohen. Since then, she is co-director of Reprogenetics Spain. She has published more than 20 scientific papers, and is a frequent lecturer to present his team’s work nationally and internationally.
Carles Giménez, PhD., Laboratory Director, Founder
Master in Cellular Biology of the Department of Cellular Biology and Physiology of the Faculty of Sciences of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (1991) and Doctor in Biological Sciences for the Autonomous University of Barcelona (1995), Dr Giménez incorporated into the scientific team of the Institute of Fundamental Biology (at present IBB) under the direction of Dr. Francesca Vidal (1989). From the beginning, his research was focused towards the development of preimplantation genetic diagnosis techniques, in the field of cytogenetics for X-linked disorders, aneuploidy and translocations and later in the use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for single gene diseases. In 1994, the Group of Research in Human Preimplantation Embryos, which included Dr. Giménez, obtained the first birth in Spain after PGD by FISH. After 1994 and in collaboration with Dr. Josep Santaló, he begun to work in the application of developed PGD techniques to detect cystic fibrosis culminating in the first pregnancy in Spain to term after PGD by PCR.
In 2003 he obtained the Specialization degree in Assisted Human Reproduction granted by ASEBIR, and in 2008 that of "Senior Embriologist" from ESHRE, followed in 2009 by the degree of Master in Genetic Counselling for the Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona. He is a codirector of dissertations of graduation and doctoral theses and he has participated in the publication of some 20 national and international scientific papers.
From 1997 to 2003 Dr Giménez worked as an at Hospital Quirón of Barcelona. 2003 he cofounded Reprogenetics Spain with Mireia Sandalinas, Emma Triviño, Santiago Munné and Jacques Cohen. Since then, he is the molecular laboratory director, and the co-director of Reprogenetics Spain.
Ana Raquel Jiménez, Ph.D.
Dr. Jiménez received a Bachelor in Biological Sciences in 2001, a master’s degree in 2003 and a Ph.D. in Human Biology in 2006 from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. During her PhD she acquired skills in assisted reproduction techniques and handling of gametes and embryos. She published several research papers and has presented at national and international meetings. While working toward her PhD, she was an assistant professor in embryology in the Veterinary Faculty of UAB. She worked as trainee embryologist for 4 months in London Fertility Centre, UK. She spent 6 months in University College of London, UK. doing research. She assisted to a PGD course offered by DEXEUS- UAB in 2004.
Currently, she is working in Reprogenetics Spain S.A. as a PGD specialist and researcher.
Other employees of Reprogenetics Spain are César Arjona, M.Sc (embryologist and PGD specialist), Elena Garcia, B.Sc (PGD specialist), Eloy Giorgetti (Customer Service), Mònica Llagostera (Head of administration), and others.
REPROGENETICS UK
Proff. Dagan Wells, PhD (see above)
Elpida Fragouli, PhD
After obtaining her BSc in Molecular Biology from the University of Surrey, UK and her MSc and PhD in human genetics from University College London, Elpida Fragouli worked at the UCL Centre for PGD and then took up a position at Yale University Medical School’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. In 2007 she returned to the UK, and now works as the director of Cytogenetics in Repogenetics UK, and also part-time as a post-doctoral research fellow in the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Oxford. Her research interests focus on the incidence of chromosome abnormality in human oocytes and embryos, and the mechanisms leading to aneuploidy. Dr Fragouli has a good record of publications, including many on the optimization and clinical application of comparative genomic hybridization.
Other employees of RG-UK are Samer Alfarawati and Michalis Konstantinidis.
REPROGENETICS GERMANY
Prof. Karsten Held, M.D., CEO
Prof. Dr. med. Karsten R. Held, attended medical studies at the University of Freiburg, finishing his doctoral thesis in pharmacogenetics in 1968. He performed is residency at Zentralkrankenhaus, Links d. Weser, Bremen, from 1968 to 1970. From there he did postdoctoral studies in human genetics from 1970 to 1973 both at the Institute of Human Genetics, University of Hamburg and the Laboratory of Genetics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA.
He trained in Pediatrics at the Department of Pediatrics, University of Hamburg thereafter, and in 1979 received his Habilitation and Qualification as Academic Lecturer, and his Board Certification as Pediatrician, followed in 1981 by his Board Certification as Genetic Counselor. In 1996 he further increased his credentials by receiving the Board certification as Human Geneticist.
During 1976 to 1996 he was the Head of the Division of Cytogenetics and Clinical Genetics, Institute of Human Genetics, University of Hamburg, and also from 1994 to 1996 the Head of the Department of Human Genetics, University of Hamburg. From there he went to become the Head of the Division Human Genetics, Laboratory Keeser/Arndt & Partner until 2002, when he became the Medical Director of the Laboratory for Molecular Medicine until 2006. Simultaneously, Prof. Held has been since 1996 to date, a Consultant to the Department of Prenatal Medicine of Gynecology and Obstetrics, AK Barmbek.
His involvement in PGD is extensive, since his lab has processed an average of 600 cases a year in the last few years, all of polar body analysis due to the German law on infertility treatment. Due to this experience, Prof. Held became a founder partner and CEO in 2007 of Reprogenetics Germany LLC.
Other employees of RG-Germany are Sonke Arps, the laboratory manager, and others.
REPROGENETICS JAPAN
Tetsuo Otani, M.D., CEO
Dr. Otani obtained his M.D. and Ph.D. in 1979 and 1984 respectively at Kobe University School of Medicine. He went on to do research in molecular biology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Returning to Kobe University he took up an academic position enabling him to do clinical work as well as research. From 1992 to 1993, he visited the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne to learn IVF and related infertility treatment. After becoming Associate Professor in 1996, he moved to join the Otani Women’s Clinic in 2000 where he is engaged in infertility treatment including IVF and PGD. In Japan Dr. Otani has become an outspoken defender of the rights of patients to have access to PGD. Though this efforts and seeing a need for PGD services in Japan, he became the co-founder and CEO of Reprogenetics Japan.
Muriel Roche, Ph.D., Lab Director
Dr Roche joined RG Japan in September 2005 and has the position of Laboratory director. Dr Roche received a Master of Science degree in 1991 and a Ph.D. in Human Biology in 1996 both from University of Nice - Sophia Antipolis, France. Before joining RG, Dr Roche worked 2 years as a researcher in the field of prenatal diagnosis before setting up and running for 4 years, the department of molecular genetics and cytogenetics of the 2nd French private laboratory.
REPROGENETICS LATINOAMERICA
Paul Lopez, M.Sc., Lab Director
Paul Lopez joined RG-LatinAmerica in January 2006 and is currently its laboratory director. Under his supervision, this lab has continuously grown and he has implemented most of the tests currently used in RG-US. Lopez received a Bachelor in Biological Sciences with a mention on Cellular Biology and Genetics in 2002 and his Master Degree in Molecular Biology in 2010, both in the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Perú. After receiving his degree, he worked as a collaborating professor in Human Genetics, Molecular Biology and Forensics, in the San Marcos University, Peru in a collaboration program between such University and New Mexico and Arizona Universities. He later co-founded the Human Identification Laboratory of the Legal Medicine Institute of the Public Ministry of the Public Prosecutor Office in Peru and published several research papers in that period. He stayed in that company 4 years.
Reprogenetics Latinoamérica 2010. | Lea el aviso legal |
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REPROGENETICS LATINOAMÉRICA |
