Human Embryos and Preimplantation Genetic Technologies: Ethical, Social, and Public Policy Aspects

Dr. Scott Sills is Senior Vice President for Research at Gen 5 Fertility in La Jolla, Califormia. In addition to full-time IVF practice, Dr. Sills' research portfolio focuses on reproductive genetics, bioethics, minimal access fertility surgery, and health policy. At G5F, Dr. Sills continues to standardize ovarian ‘rejuvenation’ using autologous platelet-rich plasma, following the first registered clinical trial of its kind for which he was Principal Investigator (2017-2018). Dr. Sills is a Vanderbilt graduate and received his PhD from London’s University of Westminster. He was awarded the MD degree from University of Tennessee in 1992, followed by gynecology residency at NYU Downtown Hospital and a sub-specialty fellowship in reproductive endocrinology at Cornell University-New York Presbyterian Hospital. He is board certified both by the American Board of Obstetrics & Gynecology and the National Board of Physicians & Surgeons. Dr Sills is a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, American College of Surgeons, and the Royal College of Physicians (Ireland), with medical credentials in California, New York and the United Kingdom.

Gianpiero D. Palermo, MD, PhD is Director of Assisted Fertilization and Andrology at the Ronald O. Perelman and Claudia Cohen Center for Reproductive Medicine (CRM), Professor of Embryology in Obstetrics & Gynaecology, and the Blavatnik Distinguished Professor of Reproductive Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Gianpiero Palermo is internationally known as an innovator in reproductive medicine, having developed intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), a revolutionary procedure in which a single sperm is injected directly into the egg for fertilization. In recognition of his ground-breaking contribution to reproductive medicine, he has received prestigious awards, including the Serono Prize for Medical Research on chromosomal analysis of embryos; the Barbara Eck Menning Founder's Award from RESOLVE, the national infertility organization; the Shackman Memorial Lecture at Johns Hopkins; the Buckeye Lecture of the American Society of Andrology; the Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award in Biotechnology and Medicine; and the Russian Crystal Tube Award. His current research includes molecular and genetic aspects of fertilization, follow-up of ICSI babies, and genetic aspects of male infertility, as well as devising new procedures to treat age-related female infertility, harvesting and differentiation of embryonic stem cells and in vitro maturation of male germ cells.