Day 1, Friday, November 22, 2019
| Good morning – Welcome coffee, served prior to the start of the day | ||
| 8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. | Opening Session | |
| 8:30 a.m. – 8:35 a.m. | Welcome Norbert Gleicher, MD In a mildly irreverent way, the FRMC every year attempts to link over 3 days evolving basic science with cutting edge clinic practice, in the process hopefully facilitating translational linkages between basic science laboratories and clinical fertility practice. The purpose is to demonstrate to clinicians what is possible and to basic scientists what is needed. FRMC has become the conference where new paradigms in reproductive medicine frequently premiere and where speakers as well as audience are encouraged to think differently. The program, therefore, evolves out of what has been happening in basic science and clinical practice in the preceding year and to where the scientific emphasis has been swaying. For the first time in 4 years, the male has been attracting significant attention and male reproductive biology is, therefore, this year a clearly featured area. Partially crossing over into male physiology, the conference also pays special attention to epigenetics. The earliest stages of embryo development never fall out of fashion because they, of course, contain the information for almost everything that is important in medicine, life, death, regeneration, immune tolerance, etc. And, clinically, the FRMC has never been bashful about addressing controversial issues, whether in presentations or in by now infamous lunch break debates. Probably the most controversial issue in this year’s conference is the dramatic decline in IVF live birth rates in the U.S. and in most other regions of the world since 2010, but especially since 2013 and what causes them. Underlying causes are obviously practice changes introduced into routine IVF practice since 2010, with none, likely, more responsible than the increasing utilization of what now is called preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A), which affects IVF outcomes not only directly but also through major secondary changes in general IVF practice, like universal extended embryo culture to blastocyst-stage, embryo banking and elective single embryo transfer. All of these topics, and much more, will be subject to critical reviews and discussions. Be ready to take part! |
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| 8:35 a.m. – 8:45 a.m. | The “Young Investigator Award” Norbert Gleicher, MD and David F. Albertini, PhD |
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| 8:45 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. | The Breaking News Lecture: Self-organization of synthetic human embryos and of synthetic organs Ali Brivanlou, PhD |
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| 9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. | Session 1 – Essential paradigm changes: Part I Chairs: David F. Albertini, PhD and Norbert Gleicher, MD |
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| 9:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. | The Opening Lecture: Heritable genome editing: Is there a translational path forward in the current political climate? Eli Y. Adashi, MD, MS, MA LITERATURE: Adashi EY and Cohen IG. Heritable genome editing: Is a moratorium needed? JAMA 2019;9:322(2)104-105 |
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| 10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. | Contrary to decades-long dogma, pregnancy raises – not decreases – breast cancer risks Hazel B. Nichols, PhD LITERATURE: Nichols et al., Breast cancer risk after recent childbirth: A pooled analysis of 15 prospective studies. Ann Intern Med 2019;170(1):22-30 |
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| 10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. | Explaining the importance of mitochondria without pushing for a commercial product David F. Albertini, PhD |
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| 11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. | Coffee Break, Poster Viewing & Visit the Exhibition | |
| 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | Session 2 – Essential paradigm changes: Part II Chairs: Zeev Shoham, MD and Milton Leong, MD |
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| 11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. | Why it appears time to consider other glycoforms than FSH24 for ovarian stimulation in ART T. Rajendra Kumar, PhD |
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| 12:00 p.m. – 12:30 p.m. | New Endocrine Society Guidelines for testosterone therapy in men with hypogonadism Shalender Bhasin, MD LITERATURE: Bhasin et al., Testosterone therapy in men with hypogonadism: An Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline. J Clin Edocrinol Metab 2018;103(5):1715-1744 |
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| 12:30 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. | Get your lunch “to-go” | |
| 1:00 p.m. –2:00 p.m. | Lunch break debate – Thinking differently in clinical practice: Part I Bring your lunch Is blastocyst-stage embryo culture now the universally recommended approach to IVF or should it only be selectively applied? Extended embryo culture was originally presented as a tool for embryo selection in good prognosis patients. Especially with increasing utilization of PGT-A in its current form, which requires embryo culture to blastocyst-stage and trophectoderm biopsy at that stage, extended embryo culture has become almost routine for everybody. Whether that is an appropriate approach in IVF will be the subject of a very interesting debate between two experts who have extensively written on the subject. Moderator: Norbert Gleicher, MD – It should be universally applied |
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| 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. | Session 3 – Thinking differently in clinical practice: Part II Chairs: David H. Barad, MD, MS and Pasquale Patrizio, MD, MS |
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| 2:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. | Why the year 2010 will live in the history of IVF in infamy for some time to come Norbert Gleicher, MD LITERATURE: Gleicher et al., Worldwide decline of IVF birth rates and its probable causes. Hum Reprod Open 2019;2019(3);hoz017 |
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| 2:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. | The cold hard fact is that PGS/PGT-A actually reduces live birth chances in most infertility patients Raoul Orvieto, MD |
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| 3:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. | Hundreds of chromosomally-normal births bear witness to high false-positive diagnoses with PGT-A Pasquale Patrizio, MD, MS LITERATURE: Patrizio et al., Worldwide live births following the transfer of chromosomally “abnormal” embryos after PGT/A: results of a worldwide web-based survey. J Assist Reprod Genet 2019;36(6):1081-1090 |
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| 3:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. | Are you still retrieving oocytes in IVF cycles for all patients at the same time? David H. Barad, MD, MS |
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| 4:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. | Coffee Break, Poster Viewing & Visit the Exhibition | |
| 4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. | Session 4 – Thinking differently in andrology Chairs: Eli Y. Adashi, MD, MS, MA and Peter Husslein, MD |
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| 4:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. | Human spermatogonial stem cells and human spermatogenesis Miles F. Wilkinson, PhD LITERATURE: Tan K and Wilkinson MF. Human spermatogonial stem cells scrutinized under the single-cell magnifying glass. Cell Stem Cell 2019;24(2):201-203 |
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| 5:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. | Going beyond single-cell transcriptomes of spermatogonial stem cells to understand their behavior, in vivo Brian P. Hermann, PhD LITERATURE: Hermann et al., The mammalian spermatogenesis single-cell transcriptome. From spermatogonial stem cells to spermatids. Cell Rep 2018;25(6):1650-1667 |
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| 5:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. | Can paternal diets affect the epigenome of sperm? Oliver J. Rando, MD, PhD LITERATURE: Boskovic A and Rando OJ. Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. Annu Rev Genet 2018;52:21-41 |
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| 6:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. | Lifestyle in male infertility: Diet, physical activity and body habitus Peter N. Schlegel, MD LITERATURE: Hayden et al., The role of lifestyle, in male infertility: Diet, physical activity, and body habitus. Curr Urol Rep 2018:19(7):171-180 |
Day 2, Saturday, November 23, 2019
| Good morning – Welcome coffee, served prior to the start of the day | ||
| 8:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. | Session 5 – Thinking differently in reproductive biology: Part I Chairs: David F. Albertini, PhD and Demián Glujovsky, MD |
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| 8:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. | Extending life and health span of tissues and organs Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, PhD LITERATURE: Xia Y and Izpisua Belmonte JC. Design approaches for generating organ constructs. Cell Stem Cell 2019;25(3):447 |
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| 8:45 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. | Principles of cell and gene therapies in the germline Shoukhrat Mitalipov, PhD LITERATURE: Wolf et al., Principles of and strategies for germline gene therapy. Nat Med 2019;25(6):890-897 |
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| 9:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. | Emergence of pluripotency & control of tissue size: a dynamic balancing act played out in the mammalian blastocyst Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis, PhD |
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| 10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. | The potential of in vitro maturation of primordial (non-growing) follicles Evelyn E. Telfer, PhD LITERATURE: McLaughlin et al., Metaphase II oocytes from human unilaminar follicles grown in a multi-step culture system. Mol Hum Reprod 2018;24(3):135-142 This lecture will be presented via Skype from Edinburgh, Scotland, UK |
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| 10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. | Coffee Break, Poster Viewing & Visit the Exhibition | |
| 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | Session 6 – Are we underestimating IVF risks? Part I Chairs: Nicole Noyes, MD and Raoul Orvieto, MD |
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| 11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. | The risk of epigenetic reprogramming in association with IVF John McCarrey, PhD |
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| 11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. | Is monozygotic twinning increased with IVF? Nicole Noyes, MD |
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| 12:00 p.m. – 12:30 p.m. | Is embryo cryopreservation causing macrosomia – and what else? Raoul Orvieto, MD |
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| 12:30 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. | Get your lunch “to-go” | |
| 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. | Lunch break debate – Essential paradigm changes: Part III Bring your lunch Is uterine transplantation medically, ethically and economically sustainable? Mats Brännström, MD, deservedly received worldwide acclaim for not only demonstrating the feasibility of uterine transplantation in humans and their ability to function in pregnancy, but also for the tour de force of his research efforts over many years that ultimately led to birth of the first child carried in a transplanted uterus. Based on his and his team’s groundbreaking work, uterine transplantation has become available in a number of medical centers around the world and an increasing number of births is steadily being reported. Uterine transplantation is, however, a highly invasive procedure for donor as well as recipient, and carries with it a very significant price tag. Following the tradition of the FRMC to address controversial subjects, this Lunch Break Debate will address these controversies. We greatly appreciate Mats Brännström’s participation as proponent and David Barad’s as, at least theoretical, opponent. LITERATURE: Castelleón et al., The history behind successful uterine transplantation in humans. JBRA Assist Reprod 2017. Moderator: Norbert Gleicher, MD -Yes, it is fully sustainable! |
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| 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. | Session 7 – Are we underestimating IVF risks? Part II Chairs: David H. Barad, MD, MS and Mats Brännström, MD |
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| 2:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. | Are reported risks of increased congenital abnormalities and long-term effects on offspring from IVF real? Andrea Weghofer, MD, PhD, MS, MBA |
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| 2:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. | How much of a risk is OHSS still in current IVF practice? Zeev Blumenfeld, MD LITERATURE: Blumenfeld Z. The ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. Vitam Horm 2018;107:423-451 |
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| 3:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. | Detection of mosaicism from single-cell expression data and implications for PGT-A Rajiv C. McCoy, PhD |
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| 3:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. | Coffee Break, Poster Viewing & Visit the Exhibition | |
| 4:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. | Session 8 – Thinking differently in clinical practice: Part III Chairs: Zeev Blumenfeld, MD and Andrea Weghofer, MD, PhD, MS, MBA |
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| 4:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. | New insights into recurrent pregnancy loss Jan J. Brosens, MD, PhD LITERATURE: Ewinton et al., New insights into the mechanisms underlying recurrent pregnancy loss. J Obstet Gynecol Res 2019;45(2):258-265 |
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| 4:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. | Can we activate dormant follicles, resistant to stimulation: The concept of in vivo, rather than in vitro “ovarian tissue rejuvenation”? David H. Barad, MD, MS |
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| 5:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. | Using NGS, concordance in ploidy between cleavage- and blastocyst-stages and between trophectoderm and inner cell mass in human embryos is lower than previously reported Human M. Fatemi, MD, PhD LITERATURE: Liñá et al., Clinical reassessment of human embryo ploidy status between cleavage and blastocyst stage by Next Generation Sequencing. PLoS One 2018;13(8):e0201652 |
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| 5:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. | How delayed childbearing, paradoxically contributes to the multiple birth epidemic in the US Eli Y. Adashi, MD, MS, MA |
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| 6:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. | Changing utilization of third-party egg donation in US IVF practice Nobert Gleicher, MD |
Day 3, Sunday, November 24, 2019
| Good morning – Welcome coffee, served prior to the start of the day | ||
| 8:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. | Session 9 – Hot topics Chairs: Human M. Fatemi, MD, MS and Sherman J. Silber, MD |
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| 8:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. | Where are we in our search for human ovarian stem cells? Evelyn E. Telfer, PhD LITERATURE: Telfer EE and Anderson RA. The existence and potential of germline stem cells in the adult mammalian ovary. Climacteric 2019;22(1):22-26 This lecture will be presented via Skype from Edinburgh, Scotland, UK |
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| 8:45 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. | Mapping the emergent organotypic landscape of the embryo at single cell resolution Sonja Nowotschin, PhD LITERATURE: Nowotschin et al., The emergent landscape of the mouse gut endoderm at single-cell resolution. Nature 2019; 569(7756):361-367 |
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| 9:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. | Self-correction of aneuploidy in human blastocysts and self-organizing human gastruloids Min Yang, PhD |
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| 10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. | High resolution in utero imaging of early primate embryogenesis Rohan Soman |
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| 10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. | Coffee Break | |
| 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. | Closing Session – Interesting most recent or yet unpublished studies Chairs: David F. Albertini, PhD and Norbert Gleicher, MD |
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| 11:00 a.m. – 11:20 a.m. | Late-Breaking News: Trial of human skin biopsies to germ-cells Sherman J. Silber, MD |
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| 11:20 a.m. – 11:40 a.m. | Preliminary results of intraovarian PRP injections David H. Barad, MD, MS |
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| 11:40 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. | A totally surprising rebound effect in complete non-responders in search of an explanation Norbert Gleicher, MD |
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| 12:00 p.m. – 12:20 p.m. | Subfertility in adult life due to epigenetic reprogramming of the fetal ovary in utero: The example of gestational diabetes Aritro Sen, PhD LITERATURE: Sinha et al., Gestational diabetes epigenetically reprograms the CART promoter in fetal ovary, causing subfertility in adult life. Endocrinology 2019;160(7):1684-1700 |
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| 12:20 p.m. – 12:40 p.m. | Adult bone marrow progenitors become decidual cells and contribute to embryo implantation and pregnancy Reshef Tal, MD, PhD LITERATURE: Tal R et al., Adult bone marrow progenitors become decidual cells and contribute to embryo implantation and pregnancy. PLoS Biol 2019;17(9):e300421 |
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| 12:40 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. | Questions & Answers |
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| 1:00 p.m. – 1:45 p.m. | The Closing Lecture: Chromosomal instability in cancer: Relevance to the early embryo? Samuel Bakhoum, MD, PhD LITERATURE: Bakhoum SF and Cantley LC. The multifaceted role of chromosomal instability in cancer and its microenvironment. Cell 2018;174(6):1347-1360 |
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| 1:45 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. | Closing remarks Norbert Gleicher, MD |