Embryologists are professionally recognised as Clinical Scientists, a highly qualified and highly trained medical professionals, who work hand-in-hand with various medical staff, especially your Fertility Specialist – to ensure infertile couples have the highest chance possible in conceiving their child through assisted reproductive techniques (ART). They are also one of the key members in an IVF centre.
Their responsibilities involve :-
- Maintaining the lab environment for the duration of the embryo’s stay in the lab
- Ensuring that the lab environment mimics that of a woman’s uterus
- Inseminating the eggs to create embryos
- Freezing sperm, eggs and embryos
- Grading and observing the embryos
- Embryo transfer into the woman’s uterus
- Performing laser biopsies on certain embryos to screen for genetic diseases
- Participates in continuing education to ensure that she is aware of any clinical developments in the field of embryology
The minimum qualification of an Embryologist is a bachelor degree in biological sciences, but almost every Embryologist at KL Fertility Centre possess a Master Degree in Clinical Embryology and the team is led by Associate Professor Deirdre Zander-Fox, Regional Scientific Director at Monash IVF Group and our Chief Embryologist with more than 18 years’ of experience in IVF.
Although parent-to-be don’t tend to spend a lot of one-on-one time with their Embryologist, they can be rest assured that our Embryologists are working hard behind the scenes to ensure the development of healthy embryos.