ASRM: Reproductive Biologists Professional Group

Report to the ASRM Board from the Reproductive Biologists Professional Group (RBPG)
It is hard for me to believe it is almost 10 months since we were altogether at ASRM in New Orleans and in 2 months we will be together again in Washington, D.C. Even more amazing is that my 3 years as an officer with the RBPG is coming to a close! I’d like to thank all those who have helped me this year - Bill Boone for answering all my inquisitive emails as I stumbled through being chair and to Sangita Jindal who continually rises to the occasion when asked for assistance.

Annual Report from the Nominating Committee
In the beginning of year 2007, RBPG invited the membership to nominate candidates who they would be interested in organizing the post-graduate course for the membership at ASRM annual meeting, San-Francisco 2008. Top two candidates with maximum number of nominations were selected for each of the two categories i.e. program chair and nominating committee member at large. Elections were conducted in March 2007. Initial electronic invitations on March 16th followed by reminder on March 29th, April 11th and finally on April 15th were sent to RBPG membership to participate in election process. There were 1109 membership invitations sent and total of 212 responses/votes received, an increase of about 2% from previous year. Drs. Pradeep Warikoo, Kimball Pomeroy and Diane Wright of RBPG nominating committee were pleased to announce the results of our election for Program Chair and Nominating Committee Member at Large, respectively for 2008:

Program Chair
Barry Behr, Ph.D., HCLD (ABB)

Nominating Committee Member At Large
Hugh Hensleigh, Ph.D., HCLD (ABB)
RBPG would like to congratulate and welcome Barry Behr, Ph.D. and Hue Hensleigh, Ph.D. in their upcoming roles. We would also like to thank John Zhang, Ph.D. and Andrew Bhatnagar, Ph.D. for their interest and willingness to serve in these positions. Finally, a big round of applause and thanks goes to Jill Clowers, Mitzi Mize and Angela Pitman at ASRM for putting together this electronic version of this election.

ROUNDTABLES FOR ASRM 2007
In early December 2006, Craig S. Niederberger, M.D. (Chair, 2007 Roundtable Luncheon Program) asked us to organize a list of 10 presenters and their topics for roundtable presentations at ASRM 2007 in Washington, DC, October 17-20, 2007. The following proposed roundtables for RBPG were accepted for presentation at the meeting:

Monday Overcooking Eggs with High FSH Protocols. Sangita K. Jindal, Ph.D.
Monday Emerging Molecular Biology Methods in ART. Nathan R. Treff, Ph.D.
Tuesday Bioassay Methods to Detect Embryo Toxins. Kimball O. Pomeroy, Ph.D.
Tuesday Quality Control in the ART Laboratories: 25 Years Worth of Research. Bill Boone, Ph.D.
Wednesday Elective Single Embryo Transfer or ICSI Strategies for Particularly Poor Samples. Dawn A. Kelk, Ph.D., H.C.L.D.
Wednesday Blastocyst Culture: Are You Ready? Pradeep K. Warikoo, Ph.D, H.C.L.D.
Wednesday Introducing Vitrification into the IVF Laboratory. Marlane J. Angle, Ph.D.

INTERACTIVE SESSIONS ASRM 2007
In January 2007, Eric S. Surrey, M.D. (Chair, 2007 Interactive Sessions Program) asked that we come up with a joint Interactive Session with the Reproductive Laboratory Technologists PG (RLTPG) to be held on Wednesday, October 17, 2007. They recommended that the subject of the session be whether a uniform embryo morphology classification system can be adopted
Title: Adoption of a uniform embryo morphology classification system for prediction of pregnancy outcome –Can a single observation reveal true zygote morphology?
Faculty - Pro: Doug Gliedt. Ph.D., HCLD (ABB); Con: Kathy Miller, BS
Moderator - Karen Elkind-Hirsch, Ph.D., HCLD (ABB); Michael L. Reed, Ph.D., ELD HCLD (ABB)

The concept that all infertility practices can, and should adopt a universal embryo morphology scoring system by is intriguing, particularly in light of the growing movement towards elective or mandatory single embryo transfer. Grading systems exist where a single morphological observation represents a decision process – to transfer or not to transfer – while other systems employ multiple observations (multipoint inspections) prior to a decision process. And either of these morphology-based systems may be augmented by chemical or other assays. Which selection method is correct, or preferable, for any given day of embryo transfer? Who would be responsible for designing the optimal grading system? How could the system be implemented, maintained, and evaluated on a real time basis? These are some of the questions that the faculty will address, in a pro and con discussion format.

CME COMMITTEE TOPICS
In early January, the ASRM CME Committee asked the RBPG to help in developing future educational activities. In order to develop these activities, they asked the Reproductive Biologist PG leadership to provide 5 topics of interest that would help:

improve teaching/practice
further educate members on a specific topic or procedure, or
any other educational need

The following CME Committee Topics for RBPG were suggested:

Maternal Diet and Other Factors Affecting Offspring Sex Ratio
Regulation of Blastocyst Implantation
Potential Importance of Vitrification in Reproductive Medicine
Ex vivo early embryo development and effects on gene expression and imprinting or The problematic in-vitro embryo in the age of epigenetics.
Effect of culture environment on gene expression and developmental characteristics in IVF-derived embryos

ONLINE EDUCATION
At the January quarterly members ECRC Conference Call, Dr. Marlane Angle was asked to contact the Chairs of the RBPG and RLTPG to inquire whether online education for their members would be a project they are interesting in developing. A conference call was held on Wednesday, January 31, 2007. The main focus of the call included expectations/guidelines, a project timeline, possibly forming a committee, and funding issues. A list of individuals who signed up at RBPG business meeting to be involved on ASRM committee were sent Dr. Angle be invited to join an education committee.

ASRM ABSTRACT COMMITTEE
At the end of February, David L. Keefe, M.D, (General Program Chair 2007) asked Dr. Elkind Hirsch to be the RBPG Abstract Committee Chair (vice chair usually does this task) and organize the abstract-grading committees. The following RBPG members who volunteered were assigned as graders to the various abstract committees: Amy Sparks, Ph.D.; Dawn Kelk, Ph.D.; Sanjita Jindal, Ph.D.; Pradeep Warikoo, Ph.D.; Marlane Angle, Ph.D.; David McCulloh, Ph.D.; Gary Smith, Ph.D.; Hugh Hensleigh, Ph.D

POSTGRADUATE COURSE
Mitchel Schiewe, Ph.D., ELD, - Program Chair submitted an update on the postgraduate course:
Title: Historical Perspective on the Development and Use of ART in Human IVF, Animal Research and Wildlife Conservation: Who has Benefited from Who?”
The aim of this one-day course will be to reconnect biologists, nurses, physicians and others with the history and possible future applications of ART across disciplines in a series of dynamic lectures and discussions. The first half of the course will focus on the historical achievements and interesting observations made in the course of applying today’s ART. We will explore the pioneers in Reproductive Physiology and relate their contributions to current clinical practice, the animal industry and wildlife conservation. Afternoon sessions will integrate current ART applications across disciplines and project their importance to the future progress of producing healthy babies.
FACULTY
Mitchel C. Schiewe, MS, PhD, ELD; Lecturer
Chad A. Johnson, MS, PhD, ELD; Moderator
Robert A. Godke, MS, PhD; Lecturer
Marius Meintjes, DVM, PhD; Lecturer
David E. Wildt, MS, PhD; Lecturer

ASRM Membership Recruitment and Retention Proposal
There has been a great deal of discussion on determining ways to attract and retain members. The responsibility has been falling on the SIGs/PGs to develop strategies. Some of the ideas to be implemented at the ASRM meeting this year include having a tabletop at the reception, gathering after the PG courses to discuss the society and PGs with non-members. The important issue for many groups was producing CEU (educational credits) offerings on-line.

Specific to the RBPG and RLTPG Proposals was a consensus, that in an effort to retain currently active members, the RPG Officers, both past and present strongly recommend greater input and representation in the ASRM through the permanent addition of a Laboratory member to the Executive Committee, to be nominated by the RPG's jointly and voted on by the membership.
Stanley G. Harris, TS, ELD (ABB)

Sincerely,

The 2006-2007 Officers:
Chair: Karen Elkind-Hirsch, Ph.D
Vice-Chair, None
Program Chair, Mitchell Schiewe, Ph.D
Secretary, Sangita Jindal, Ph.D
Nomination Committee (Chair, Pradeep Warikoo, Ph.D)
Nominating Committee Member: Kimball Pomeroy
Nominating Committee Member at Large: Diane Wright
Bylaw Committee (Chair, Michael Vernon, Ph.D)
Website Committee (Chair, Grace Centola, Ph.D)
RBPG SART Representative, David Wininger, Ph.D
Membership Committee, R-PG Representative: Stan Harris, TS, ELD (ABB)

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