Session 174: PGT: 360 Degrees

Session 174: PGT: 360 Degrees Tuesday, 3:00 PM EST | 8:00 PM UK | 9:00 PM CET This webinar is kindly sponsored by Thermo Fisher Scientific Moderators: Prof. Evrim Ünsal and Giles Palmer Presenters: Dr. Adam Pillon: Beyond the Karyotype: Using PGT-A to Detect Balanced Translocations Dr. Luis Antonio Alcaraz Mas: Maximising the Potential of PGT-M: NGS vs CE Sequencing Q and A Synopsis: TBA Prof. Evrim Ünsal Prof. Dr. Evrim Ünsal is Professor of Medical Genetics at Yüksek İhtisas University and Head of Molecular Genetics at Mikrogen Genetic Diagnosis Center. She has more than 25 years of experience in embryology, assisted reproduction, medical genetics, and molecular diagnostics. Her work focuses on reproductive genetics, preimplantation genetic testing (PGT-A, PGT-M, and PGT-SR), carrier screening, rare disease diagnostics, and the clinical implementation of next-generation sequencing technologies. She has led and contributed to numerous national and international research projects, including UltraVitrOmics, EmbryoSeq, and CarrierCheck, and has participated in collaborative research at the Yale University Fertility Center. Prof. Ünsal currently serves as Coordinator of the Reproductive Genetics Special Interest Group of the Turkish Society of Reproductive Medicine (TSRM) and is a member of the Advisory Board of the European Rare Disease Research Alliance (ERDERA). She is also an active member of PGDIS, ESHRE, ESHG, and ASRM. 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. Accomplished author and speaker, 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, Embryorigins, Larnaca and Vitalab in Johannesburg) and product developer in a wide range of areas within the Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) industry. He is an honourary lecturer at Bristol University, 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. After 25 years of living and working in Greece, Giles has developed a deep passion for Hellenism. He serves as a Trustee at the Hellenic Centre, and his two children attend the Greek Language School in Cardiff, where he has lived since 2016. In his free time, Giles enjoys family life with his wife, Eirini, and their 12-year-old twins, Natalia and Philippos. He also dedicates time to perfecting his skills on the Toubeleki. Dr. Adam Pillon Dr. Adam Pillon is from Windsor, Ontario Canada. He completed his PhD at the University of Windsor in Cellular and Molecular Biology. He joined the world of fertility science and medicine after experiencing first hand what is was like to be a fertility patient and he joined Conceivium Biotech to make a difference in the space. Dr. Luis Antonio Alcaraz Ma Luis A. Alcaraz Mas, PhD, is Technical Director and cofounder at Bioarray and Journey Genomics, a genetic diagnostics laboratory based in Elche, Spain, specializing in clinical genetics. A molecular geneticist with over 20 years of experience, he leads the development and validation of next-generation sequencing (NGS) based diagnostic assays applied to the field of reproductive genetics, clinical diagnosis and oncology.. His work centers on translating advances in sequencing technology into robust, accredited clinical workflows for the genetic laboratory, with a particular focus on improving the accuracy, scalability and turnaround. He has also served as a visiting professor at the University of Alicante, contributing to the training of the next generation of biologist and bridging academic research with clinical diagnostic practice. His current interests focus on SNP-based haplotyping, integrating PGT-M with concurrent aneuploidy screening in a single NGS workflow.