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Catherine Adams, PhD, HCLD, EMB |
Dr. Adams holds a Ph.D. in Mammalian Embryology from one of the most prestigious universities in the world, University of Cambridge (UK), where she performed her research on blastocyst development. |
Dr. Adams is the ART Laboratory and Scientific Director at the Reproductive Sciences Center in La Jolla, California, a world-class fertility and reproductive genetics center.
She obtained her Ph.D. in Mammalian Embryology from University of Cambridge (UK) during a time when several of the world’s foremost reproductive biologists were conducting cutting edge research at that facility. Her studies involved developing an understanding of the regulation of inner cell differentiation, research that required her to perfect the deconstruction and reconstruction of blastocysts, a process that involved employing an array of micromanipulation techniques during “endless hours” over many months. There are few scientists in the world with her depth of knowledge and expertise in this most important topic.
Since she commenced her clinical IVF work in 1985, she has achieved many distinctions including being one of the first embryologists in the world to have a successful frozen embryo transfer and later to have a successful cytoplasmic transfer and to participate in the first successful cloning of a human embryo. Perhaps because of the skills she first acquired as a graduate student, her micromanipulations skills are legendary, and she has achieved the distinction of being the first or one of the first to successfully accomplish virtually every major advanced procedure employed to treat severe male factor cases in the Southern California area.
Dr. Adam’s research has been primarily focused on methods to improve implantation rates. To that end, she has studied the effect of sperm DNA fragmentation on pregnancy outcomes, pre-implantation genetic screening, embryo cryopreservation techniques, assisted oocyte activation with ICSI and launched the first comprehensive embryo donation program in Southern California. Current research efforts include novel uses of genetic information to select embryos, the role of mitochondria transfer in oocyte quality, novel methods to enhance implantation, and optimizing oocyte vitrification methods.
Dr. Adams’s expertise is often sought by others in the fertility community and she is a frequent presenter at meetings world-wide. She is a founding member of the American College of Embryology and is also affiliated with numerous other professional organizations.