Research Award Winners

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March 2023 Winners

Outstanding Paper

• 1st Place: Kate Devine, MD
• 2nd Place: Amanda Schwartz, MD
• 3rd Place: Katherine Scott, BA, MSc

Allied Health Professionals 

• Joginder Bidhan, MS
• Matthew VerMilyea, PhD, HCLD/CC
• Egle Ortega, PHD

Private Practice Research Award

• Gayathree Murugappan, MD

Excellence In Training Award

• Rachel Madelbaum, MD
• Michael Neblet, MD
• Arian Khorshid, MD

March 2022 Winners

Outstanding Paper

• 1st Place: Monica Chung, MD
• 2nd Place: Tyl Taylor, HCLD, PhD
• 3rd Place: Emily Jacobs, MD

Allied Health Professionals 

• Catherine Kratka
• Jennifer Matucha, MSc, TS
• Kelly Wirka, TS

Private Practice Research Award

• Carrie Bedient, MD

Excellence In Training Award

• Lindsey Eaton, BA
• Adina Schwartz, MD
• Caroline Violette, MD

May 2021 Winners

Outstanding Paper

• 1st Place: Allison Petrini, MD | Austin, TX
• 2nd Place: Amber Klimczak, MD | Basking Ridge, New Jersey
• 3rd Place: Brent Hanson, MD | Minneapolis, Minnesota

Allied Health Professionals 

• Michael Collins, PhD | New York, New York
• Royi Lynn | Chicago, Illinois
• Sonia Patel | Roselle, Illinois

Private Practice Research Award

• Anatte Karmon, MD | Honolulu, Hawaii

Excellence In Training Award

• Gayathree Murugappan, MD | Sunnyvale, California
• Katherine Baker, MD | Boston, Massachusetts
• Julia Kim, MD | San Francisco, California

Star Award

• Joy Golden, ANP-BC | Boise, Idaho
• Richard J. Paulson, MD | Los Angeles, California

April 17, 2019 Winners

March 24, 2018 Award Winners

March 25, 2017 Award Winners

2016 Award Winners

PCRS Allied Health Professional Awards

"Analytical Validation of a Novel Next-Generation Sequencing Based Pre-implantation Genetic Screening Technology"

Poster number 21 Tomas Escudero of Reprogenetics
"Next Generation Sequencing for Pre-implantation Genetic Screening Discovers Mosaicism is Independent Of Age"

Private Practice Research Award

Dr. Mousa Shamonki of Fertility and Surgical Associates of California

"Non-Invasive Preimplantation Genetic Screening:  Free Embryonic Dna In Embryo Culture Media Exists And May Offer The Potential For Comprehensive Chromosomal Screening Of Human Blastocysts"

Excellence In-Training Awards

Poster number 26  Dr. Jackie Ho  Fellow, USC Keck School of Medicine
"Oocyte Cryopreservation is as Effective as Embryo Cryopreservation in Achieving Live Births"

Oral Presentation number 1  Dr. Michelle Apple  Resident, Stanford Medical Center
"Parental Source of Aneuploidy May be Different Between Sporadic and Recurrent Miscarriages"

Oral Presentation number 5  Dr. Caroline Juneau  Fellow, Rutgers - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Reproductive Medical Associates of New Jersey
"When Euploid Blastocysts are Selected for Embryo Transfer, Day Three Morphology Does Not Correlate with Implantation Rate" 

Outstanding Paper Awards 

1st Place $1000

Dr. Don Royster
Fellow, National Institutes of Health
"Rapamycin Expands T-Regulatory Cells and Improves Implantation and Live Birth Rates in a Murine Model"

2nd Place $750

Dr. Mili Thakur
Fellow, Wayne State University
"Galactose and its Metabolites Deteriorate Metaphase 2 Mouse Oocyte Quality through a Mechanism that Involves Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Oxidative Stress"

3rd Place $500

Dr. Emily Seidler
Resident, Washington University
"Effect of Diet-Induced Obesity and Coq10 on Ovarian Reserve"

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2015 Award Winners

Outstanding Paper Awards

1st Place
Dr. Ioanna A. Comstock, Fellow, Standford
"Does an Increased Body Mass Index Affect Endometrial Receptivity In Infertile Patients? A Functional Genomics Analysis"

2nd Place
Dr. Matrika Johnson, Fellow, Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC
"In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) Intracypoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) Using Sperm Exposed to Cyclophosphamide Reduces Preimplantation Embryo Development and Live Birth after Embryo Transfer (ET)."

3rd Place
Jocelyn Davie, Genetic Counselor, Good Start Genetics
"Carrier screening of 48,761 patients in the IVF setting utilizing next generation DNA sequences detects common, rare, and otherwise undetectable pathogenic variants in prevalent, society-recommended diseases."

Allied Professional Awards

Gina Davis, Genetic Counselor, PacGenomics
"Pilot Study of NIPS-24 Using Circulating Fetal Nucleated Cells (CFNCs) Isolated by Nanovelcro Microchips"

Sergio Vaccari, PhD, Embryologist, Pacific Fertility Center
"Timing of Blastocyst Hatching after Vitrification and warming: Impact on Clinical Pregnancy Rate"

Alison Coates, Embryologist, Oregon Reproductive Medicine
"Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) of sub-optimal sperm increases the risk of sex-chromosome, but not autosomal aneuploidy among embryos evaluated with comprehensive chromosome screening (CCS)"

Private Practice Research Award

Dr. Angela Thyer, Seattle Reproductive Medicine
"Is pre-implantation screening worth the cost in high reserve patients?"

PCRS Excellence In-Training Award

Dr. Alan Bolnick, Fellow, Wayne State University
"Trophoblast Retrieval and Isolation from the Cervix (TRIC) for Non-Invasive first trimester fetal gender determination in a carrier of congenital adrenal hyperplasia"

Dr. Rebecca Barnett, Resident, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
"CYP1A1 3801T>C Polymorphism is not Associated with Variations in Total Motile Sperm Or Fertilization Rates with ICSI"

Dr. Heather Burks, Fellow, Keck School of Medicine of USC
"Developmentally delayed Cleavage-Stage Embryos Maintain High Implantation Rates in Frozen Embryo Transfers"

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2014 Award Winners

PCRS Outstanding Paper Award 

Kyle Tobler, MD Comparative Genomic Hybridization Microarray (aCGH) Analysis of DNA Isolated from the Blastocoel Fluid from 26 Blastocysts 

PCRS Reproductive Endocrine Award 

Marc Gualtieri, MD - Successful Induction of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSC’s) from Human Granulosa Cells (hGC’s).

Practicing Physician Award 

Bruce Shapiro, MD - Frozen Embryo Transfer Following ‘‘Freeze All’’ Is a Superior Therapy to Another Fresh Transfer in Patients with Prior Fresh Embryo Implantation Failure

PCRS Poster Awards

(1st) Caitlin Dunne, MD - Growth Hormone Supplementation in the Luteal Phase Prior to Microdose GnRH Agonist Flare Protocol for In Vitro Fertilization
(2nd) Erika Munch, MD - Poor Laboratory Air Quality and Its Impact on Early Embryo Development
PCRS In-Training Award – Alan Bolnick, MD - Low Molecular Weight Heparin Promotes Extravillous Differentiation and Prevents Apoptosis of First Trimester Human Trophoblast Cells Through HBEGF-mediated Signaling

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2013 Award Winners

PCRS Outstanding Paper Award
Jonathan Kort, MD
A Cohort Study to Evaluate the Impact of Weight Loss on Fertility Outcomes in an Overweight/obese Population

PCRS Reproductive Endocrine Award
Joseph Lee, BS
Using Machine Learning Algorithms to Identify Risk Factors Correlated with Ectopic Pregnancies at a Large IVF Program

Practicing Physician Award
Irene Souter, MD
Should Infertile Women with Normal TSH Levels (<5.0mIU/L) Strive for a Stricter Preconception TSH cut-off? The Effects of a Lower TSH Threshold on the Outcome of Ovulation Induction/Intrauterine Insemination (OI/IUI) Cycles

PCRS Poster Awards

First Place
Chandra Shenoy, MD
Use of Confocal Laser and Three-dimensional Imaging Techniques to Study Failed Fertilization after ICSI: A Pilot Study

Second Place
Dennis Idowu, MD
Results of 24 Chromosome SNP Microarray Analysis of Preimplantation Embryos in Couples with Balanced Reciprocal or Robertsonian Translocations

PCRS In-Training Award
Susan McClelland, MD
A Comparison of Pregnancy Outcomes between Day 3 and Day 5 Embryo Transfers: Is There More to the Story than SART?

PCRS Fertility Nursing Research Award
Kathy Turner, RN, NP
Stress Reduction during In Vitro Fertilization

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2012 Award Winners

PCRS Outstanding Paper Award
Kyoko Iwata
Mechanism for the formation of human embryos with multinucleated blastomeres identified by time-lapse cinematography

PCRS Reproductive Endocrine Award
Alexander Quaas
The effect of isoflavone soy protein (isp) supplementation on endometrial thickness, hyperplasia and endometrial cancer risk in postmenopausal women: A randomized controlled trial

Practicing Physician Award
Liyun Li
Prevalence and Risk Factors for Vitamin D Deficiency in Women with Infertility

PCRS Poster Awards

First Place
Paul Brezina
Dense single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) microarrays for the identification of aneuploidy and consanguinity in preimplantation embryos

Second Place
Michelle Catenacci
Assessment of hyaluronic acid for selecting sperm with low DNA Fragmentation

PCRS In-Training Award
Orkun Tan
Expression of Cytoskeletal-linking ERM (Ezrin, Radixin, and Moesin) Proteins in Human Endometrium

PCRS Non Doctoral Research Award
Lisa Schuman
Women Pursuing Non-Medical OOCYTE Cryopreservation Share Information about Their Treatment with Family and Friends

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2011 Award Winners

Outstanding Paper Award
Alexander Quaas, MD, PhD, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Oral 1: Early Markers of Reprogramming in Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (IPSC's): A Timeline of Key Steps in the Reprogramming Process

Practicing Physician Award
Bruce Shapiro, MD, PhD, Fertility Center of Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV
Oral 4: Basal Follicle Stimulating Hormone as a Predictor of Fetal Aneuploidy

Nursing Research Award
Penny Donnelly, RN MFT, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
Poster 39: Incidence and severity of depression in recurrent pregnancy loss patients

Endocrine Research Award
Joe Conaghan, PhD, Pacific Fertility Center, San Francisco, CA
Oral 3: Optimization of Blastocyst Vitrification May Require Artificial Collapse

Val Davajan Professional in-Training Award
Briana Rudick, MD, University of Southern California, LA, CA
Oral 9: The Role of Vitamin D Levels on IVF Outcomes in Donor-Recipient Cycles

Best Poster

First Place
Matthew Rabinowitz, Gene Security Network, Redwood City, CA
Poster 11: Concordance Between Day 3 and Day 5 Biopsy Results Using 24-Chromosome Aneuploidy Screening Method

Second Place
Rick Burney, MD, Madigan Army Medical Center, University Place, WA
Poster 20: Premenstrual Spotting of Two or More Days is Strongly Associated with Endometriosis in Women with Infertility

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2010 Award Winners

Prize Paper
FSH Receptor, Mullerian-Inhibiting Substance, And Mis-Ii Receptor Expression in Human Ovarian Preantral Follicle Stages
Travis McCoy, MD
University of Louisville
Louisville, KY 

Practicing Physician Award
Gestational Outcome Following Therapy for Intrauterine Adhesions
Paul Kaplan
MD Eugene, OR

Reproductive Endocrine Award
The Role of Ovarian Mechanical Rigidity and Extracellular Matrix in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and Obesity
Jennifer Hirshfeld-Cytron, MD
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Chicago, IL

Val Davajan In-Training Award
Transgene Independent Germ Cell Differentiation from HESCS
Brad B. Swelstad, MD
Johns Hopkins Hospital
Lutherville, Maryland

Poster Awards

First Place
Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Topical Microbicide Formulations in the Pigtailed Macaque: Product Distribution and Transport
Dorothy Patton, PhD
University of Washington Medical Center
Seattle, WA

Second Place
Quality Control Of Incubator Co2: Old Fashion Fyrite Vs. New Fangelled Electronic Analyzer
Casey A. McDonald
Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York

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2009 Award Winners

Prize Paper
Endometriosis Expresses a Gene Expression Pattern Suggesting Decreased Retinoid Uptake and Metabolism
Mary Ellen Pavone, MD        
North Western University School of Medicine

Practicing Physician Award
Crown-Rump Length (CRL) and Fetal Heart Rate (FHR) in Early Pregnancy for Infertile Couples Correlate Well with Pregnancy Success at Delivery
Charles Coddington, MD
Chair, Division of REI Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN

Reproductive Endocrine Award
Wnt7a Expression Is Limited to the Endometrial Luminal Epithelium: Potential Role in Postmenstrual Endometrial Repair
Sacha Kreg, MD      
Stanford School Of Medicine

Val Davajan In-Training Award
Anti-Mullerian Hormone Receptor Type II Gene Polymorphisms Similar Among Women With The Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) And Controls
Kari Sproul, MD
UCLA/David Geffen School Of Medicine
Los Angeles, CA

Poster Award

First Place

Perinatal Outcomes in Pregnancies Achieved through Gestational Surrogacy: Investigating the Influence of Treatment Versus Host Effects on ART Outcomes
Melanie Landay, MD
USC Keck School Of Medicine

Second Place

OOCYTE Cryopreservation for Fertility Preservation: The Effect of Age on the Quantity and Maturity of OOCYTES
Jason Barritt, PhD
USA Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York

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2008 Award Winners

Prize Paper
An Hcg-Antagonist Reduce Ovulation and Diminishes Ohhs In A Rodent Model Prati Vardana, MD

Val Davajan Fellow/Resident Award
In Vitro Maturation of Oocytes As A Fertility Preservation Option Peter Uzelac, MD

Reproductive Endocrine Award
Is Microdose Gnrh Agonist In The Absence Of Exogenous Gonadotropins Sufficient To Achieve Multiple Karine Chung , MD

Practicing Physician Award 
Can Autologous Blastocyst Transfer Cycles Be As Efficacious As Fresh Oocyte Donation Cycles On A Per Transfer Basis? Said T Daneshmand, MD

Poster Awards

First Place:
Frequency Of Abnormal Hatching In PGD Embryos Barry Behr, PhD

Second Place:
Endothelial Function, Endothelin-1, and Fibrinogen In Young Women Using The Vaginal Contraceptive Ring Paul Kaplan, MD

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