Category Archives: Embryology

Embryology

RMA of New York Opens State-of-the-Art IVF Laboratory in Brooklyn, expanding access to fertility care to New York’s most populous county – PRNewswire

For the past 10 years, RMA of New York had served the Brooklyn community at a satellite office in downtown Brooklyn. The opening of this new, full-service center, enhanced with an onsite state-of-the-art IVF laboratory, allows Brooklyn residents to meet all of their fertility needs in one location. Accessibility is a key component to positive patient experiences and successful outcomes, since fertility treatment often involves frequent or even daily visits to the office.

RMA of New York founding partner Dr. Alan Copperman commented, "We are committed to providing exceptional, accessible, and inclusive fertility care to communities in Brooklyn and the surrounding area. By practicing personalized and precise reproductive medicine, I am confident that we will replicate the high success rates we have achieved for two decades at our Manhattan location, and that we will be able to help an entire community of people access care locally and fulfill their family building dreams."

RMA of New York consistently delivers high IVF success rates and is globally recognized as a leader in the field of reproductive medicine and assisted reproductive technology. Personalized, precision medicine and clinical excellence have been hallmark characteristics of RMA of New York for the past 20 years.

Medical Director Dr. Jovana Lekovich, alongside reproductive endocrinology and infertility specialists Dr. Tia Jackson-Bey and Dr. Jenna Friedenthal, will care for patients at the Brooklyn location. With decades of experience among them, they will offer patients a personalized reproductive treatment plan that will meet individualized family-building goals.

Dr. Lekovich emphasized, "We are opening our doors to individuals and couples who come from a wide range of backgrounds, ethnicity, sexual orientations, and cultures, but who share a dream of parenthood.We will combine scientific excellence and compassionate care and do everything in our power to make those dreams come true."

This team of top fertility experts will provide patients with a full range of on-site fertility care from low-tech treatments, such as intrauterine insemination (IUI), to the latest advanced assisted reproductive techniques, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF) and preimplantation genetic testing (PGT). Fertility preservation treatment programs will now be more accessible with the new state-of-the-art lab that will also provide on-site egg and sperm freezing, and long term storage.

With four offices in Manhattan, three in the Hudson Valley at RMANY at CareMount, and six on Long Island at RMALIIVF, RMA of New York's new Brooklyn location demonstrates a sustained commitment of the organization to provide fertility care to the region. RMA of New York, in partnership with the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Medicine at The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, is committed to using genomic medicine, big data, and multi-scale biology to personalize care and improve patient outcomes.

About Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York (RMA of New York)

RMA of New York is widely recognized as a global leader in state-of-the-art reproductive medicine, and serves as the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Led by an integrated team of physicians and scientists with extensive reproductive endocrinology, infertility, and embryology training, RMA of New York is renowned for its pioneering research in the field and for delivering high IVF success rates. For the past 20 years, the physicians of RMA of New York have consistently been distinguished as "Top Doctors" by Castle Connolly and New York Magazine, as well as Super Doctors. Headquartered in midtownManhattan, RMA ofNew Yorkhas fertility clinic locations throughoutManhattan, Brooklyn,Westchester, Long Island, and abroad inMexico City. For more information, please visitwww.rmany.com.

Contact: Pamela Pearlman 212-756-5777 [emailprotected]

SOURCE Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York

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RMA of New York Opens State-of-the-Art IVF Laboratory in Brooklyn, expanding access to fertility care to New York's most populous county - PRNewswire

Embryology

The ethical pitfalls of company-sponsored egg freezing – UCAN

In recent years, elective egg freezing by single women to preserve their fertility without medical reason commonly referred to as social egg freezing has gained much popularity worldwide. To date, this procedure is banned in only a handful of countries such as Singapore and China, where there is much ongoing debate to permit it.

The high costs of the procedure make it inaccessible to many younger single women with fewer savings, but with optimal egg quality for successful freezing. Hence some big corporations have stepped in to provide egg freezing benefits to their female employees for example, tech giants such as Apple, Facebook and Google.

Nevertheless, corporate sponsorship of egg freezing may be a violation of good medical ethics, in particular with regards to patient autonomy. This is in fact a key foundational cornerstone of biomedical ethics and can be broadly defined as the right of patients to make key medical decisions involving themselves, in accordance with one's own values, reasons, and motives, without undue influence and coercive pressure from another person or organization.

This is of particular significance for elective medical procedures involving substantial risks to patients, such as social egg freezing. Although unnecessary for the sustenance of either life or health, patients are exposed to substantial risks during egg freezing. For example, besides invasive surgery for egg extraction, patients can also potentially develop ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHS), a medical condition where the body overreacts to injected hormones, the severe form of which may be life-threatening.

It can be argued that company sponsorship of egg freezing is unethical because it interferes with the patients autonomous decision-making process to undergo elective egg freezing without a valid medical reason while incurring substantial risks to herself. This is completely unlike employee medical benefits for the treatment of life or health-threatening conditions, which is involuntary and not the result of personal choice.

In a recent post that was published on Womens Forum Australia, it was stated that by normalizing and incorporating the practice as an employee benefit into workplace culture, it is not unreasonable to expect that this could create a more subtle pressure on women to take up the offer.

Added to such concerns is the fact that employers have a conflict of interest in delaying women from having children, as it keeps them in the workforce and is arguably more economically viable than other family-friendly work policies.

Worryingly, there may be an unwritten rule that if egg freezing benefits are available, then female employees are expected to utilize them to delay childbearing, rather than take maternity leave; or else they will not be promoted or be the first to be laid off if the opportunity arises.

A company offering to sponsor elective egg freezing for their female employees is akin to enticing and abetting them to undergo this risky procedure without a valid medical reason, thereby exerting some degree of undue influence on their decision-making process.

Moreover, the act of sponsoring egg freezing may be tantamount to encouraging and abetting false hope of future motherhood with this elective procedure, due to its low success rates. The American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) reported that the pregnancy success rate is relatively low, at around two percent to 12 percent per frozen egg.

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Similarly, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority of the United Kingdom reported that only about one in five IVF treatment cycles were successful with a patients own frozen eggs. The uncertainty of future conception with social egg freezing may be further aggravated by the late age at which the majority of career women freeze their eggs, typically in their mid-thirties to early forties.

In future, if female employees are unable to conceive with their frozen eggs, could their employers be held accountable for encouraging and abetting them to freeze their eggs via company fringe benefits?

Indeed, as bioethics professor Heidi Mertes wrote: Egg freezing is often misleadingly portrayed as an insurance policy instead of a last resort. Each frozen egg cell represents a small chance of a healthy live birth, and those chances decline fast after a womans 35th birthday. Rather than an insurance policy, women are instead buying lottery tickets. If they buy a lot of tickets (that is, if they are able to bank a large number of good quality egg cells), they have a reasonable chance of success, but uncertainty is a fundamental feature of the system. Facebook and Apple are therefore investing in a false sense of security. They are certain to get a return on that investment, but are their employees?

Mertes also stated that company-sponsored egg freezing created a situation whereby women "owe" their employers. For example, a single woman who freezes her eggs at age 30 and bumps into Mr. Right the next day may want to embark on parenthood the year after. Will she be free from outside pressure to go ahead, or will the frozen eggs be regarded by both parties (employer and employee) as an addendum to the employment contract in which the employee has promised not to get pregnant in the first few years to follow? Also, what happens when she changes jobs?

Lawyer Lauren Geisser postulated that instead of refashioning the corporate norms of female employees sacrificing their youth and peak childbearing years for their employers, companies may find it in their best interest to offer egg freezing sponsorship at the expense of finding a long-term solution to sustaining long-term work-life balance and equality in the workplace.

Hence, corporate sponsorship of social egg freezing would implicitly assume that women will continue to bear the brunt of childcare and that the workplace will continue to be incompatible with pregnancy and motherhood, thus providing an empty solution of deferring childbirth via egg freezing.

Similar views were voiced by the journalist Nitasha Tiku, who wrote that women may feel pressured to use the egg freezing benefit to delay childbearing, just like everyone feels pressured to always be on call to the office, always check email, always have a smartphone in hand. If such coercive pressure exists, then this would be a clear violation of the patients autonomous decision-making process.

As such, company sponsorship of egg freezing should be viewed as a trespass on a patients autonomous decision-making process, thus contravening good medical ethics, and should therefore be strictly regulated or even prohibited by health authorities worldwide.

Dr. Alexis Heng Boon Chin is an associate professor of biomedical science at Peking University, China. He previously worked in the field of human clinical assisted reproduction research in Singapore and has authored 50 international journal publications on ethical and legal issues relating to new reproductive technologies in addition to publishing more than 250 scientific journal articles. The views in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCANews.

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The ethical pitfalls of company-sponsored egg freezing - UCAN

Embryology

Argentine bishops want people to hear the pope, not about the pope – Crux Now

ROME Even though the papacy isnt a popularity contest, a popes influence in his home country is one way to measure how hes doing. Alas, when it comes to Pope Franciss Argentina, things are a bit more complicated: According to the local bishops, Argentines hear about the pope, but they dont actually hear him.

According to a 2020 poll by the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), nine in ten Argentines affirm that their religiosity did not increase after the election of historys first pope from the global south. Furthermore, 40 percent of Argentines are completely indifferent to the pope, and within this number, 32 percent of those who answered identify as Catholic. And 27 percent of the people think hes too involved in politics instead of spiritual affairs.

Seeing these numbers, it comes as no surprise that the head of the Argentine bishops conference, Bishop Oscar Ojea of San Isidro, believes that two of the six challenges the local church faces for the coming years involve Pope Francis and his magisterium:

Speaking about the Synod, which includes a two-year consultation process at a parish, diocesan, national and regional levels before the actual Synod of Bishops on synodality, to be held in Rome in Oct. 2023, Ojea said that with it, The Church goes out to listen in a world of deaf ears, in which each group listens to its own discourse. Before the proposal of the Synod there are different reactions and fears.

As president of the Argentine bishops, he said, I have clearly seen sectors of a secularized mentality, very entrenched in some media outlets, that do not hesitate to use disinformation, slander and defamation to attack the Church, seeking to expel it from the public space.

On the other hand, he argued, there is a religious fundamentalism that does not respect the freedom of others and feeds forms of intolerance and violence, longing for a church that imposes power.

These two sectors, according to Ojea, have much economic and media power, and in Argentina, they have joined together, like Pharisees and Sadducees, to systematically denigrate the church through the figure of Pope Francis, who has deserved the respect and consideration of most of the peoples of the world, near or far from the church, over these nine years of his pontificate.

In his own country, the bishop pointed out, these groups have become a major obstacle for Pope Francis to be read directly and thus his teachings reach the faithful. Instead, our people have heard more opinions and qualifications about him than what he expresses through his words and writings.

We must continually unmask these two extremes, without allowing ourselves to be defeated by a secularism that worldlyizes the church or by a fundamentalism that prevents it from enculturating itself and properly reading the signs of the times, Ojea said.

On the matter of clerical sexual abuse, the president of the Argentine bishops said: We must not give in to any kind of cover-up. We have to be very firm in this determination. We bishops, in these situations, carry a real cross. We must first of all protect the victims, recognize that although there are some false allegations, the vast majority of the allegations are true and this should concern us, occupy us and invite us to deepen in a reorganization of the ecclesial structure.

He pointed out that protecting children, preventing abuse, and helping survivors is a task for the entire Church, called to confront the weight of a culture impregnated with clericalism inherited from its history.

Ojea also spoke of the need to fight all forms of abuse, including those of power, financial nature and conscience.

Speaking about gender ideology, the prelate said that on this matter, it is important for the laity to be formed, because in a certain sense, we have found ourselves surprised in the mist of a very fast cultural change.

It is possible to distinguish without separating, the biological sex from the sociocultural role of sex, Ojea said. Gender ideology instead distinguishes sex and gender by separating them and thus preventing a harmonious relationship of all aspects of the human person.

Pope Francis has referred to this issue in several opportunities throughout his pontificate, calling it a global war against the family. Last year, speaking about where he sees evil in a book about Pope John Paul II, he said that one place is gender theory. Right away I want to clarify that I am not referring to people with a homosexual orientation. The Catechism of the Catholic Church invites us to accompany them and provide pastoral care to these brothers and sisters of ours.

Gender theory, he said, has a dangerous cultural aim of erasing all distinctions between men and women, male and female, which would destroy at its roots Gods most basic plan for human beings: Diversity, distinction. It would make everything homogenous, neutral. It is an attack on difference, on the creativity of God and on men and women.

RELATED: He was a great, Pope Francis says of St. John Paul II

Francis said he did not want to discriminate against anyone, but was convinced that human peace and well-being had to be based on the reality that God created people with differences and that accepting not ignoring those differences is what brings people together.

When it comes to the Argentine bishops, Ojea said that we prefer to adopt a gender perspective. Gender ideology instead thinks of gender as a fluid and self-constructed reality independent of biology so that ones identity could be designed according to the autonomous desire of each person.

The prelate also said that all persons must be treated according to their equal dignity, and on this regard, we cannot deny that our history bears traces of a patriarchal history in which the equal dignity of males and females has not been recognized in practice and we see that here a profound change is necessary.

Ojea said the bishops conference sees the imposition of gender ideology on all educational projects, ignoring the freedom of parents and educational institutions, is also part of the sixth challenge they foresee for upcoming years.

On the fourth challenge, the defense of life, Ojea said that sometimes, the Catholic Church is accused of being anti-rights and that by being against abortion and same-sex marriage, the Church is putting these in the same bag with violence against women.

We must make it clear that we are not anti-rights because in the first place we defend the right of every mother and every unborn child, that is, the right of all, without excluding anyone, he said. We must always strongly affirm our most resounding rejection of all types of violence, especially that which is exercised against the most vulnerable, women and children.

Abortion on demand in the first 14 weeks of gestation was legalized in Argentina in December. In the videos, Ojea says he spoke about the matter with Pope Francis back in January, when the two met at the Vatican. During that conversation, the pontiff urged the bishop to find creative ways to continue underlining the importance of life, and the fact that it is science and embryology books that prove that life begins at conception.

On the first challenge, that of being a missionary Church, he said it comes directly from Francis programmatic letter, Evangelii Gaudium, published in 2013, where he wrote: I dream of a missionary option capable of transforming everything.

The immediate context of the pandemic has left deep traces of anger, sadness, disillusionment and fear, Ojea said. All these shards left by the pandemic cannot be evaluated conveniently because of the proximity in time. This missionary outreach of our Church faces this reality and this context.

Follow Ins San Martn on Twitter:@inesanma

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Argentine bishops want people to hear the pope, not about the pope - Crux Now

Embryology

Rosanna Davison reveals she’s still waiting to apply to be her daughter’s legal guardian – Goss.ie

Rosanna Davison has revealed shes still waiting to apply to be her daughters legal guardian.

The former Miss World and her husband Wes Quirke welcomed their first child Sophia via gestational surrogate in November 2019, following years of fertility issues.

At present, surrogacy is unregulated in Irish law and mothers of children born via surrogacy, even through gestational surrogacy in which the child is biologically theirs, have no rights to their children.

Mothers who welcome a child via surrogacy have to wait two years before they can apply through the courts for parental rights, and are not entitled to any maternity benefits as they are currently not legally recognised as the childs mother.

The mother or second parent of a child born through surrogacy also cannot legally consent to medical treatment for their child until they are awarded guardianship.

Speaking to the Irish Times, Rosanna said: I find it incredibly distressing to think of what could happen if we were in a situation where Wes [her husband] became incapacitated or worse.

How would we cope knowing that I had no legal say over what happens to Sophia?

Months after Sophia was born, Rosanna fell pregnant with miracle twins Oscar and Hugo, after suffering 15 miscarriages in the past.

The 37-year-old continued: We fought a hard battle to have her, to bring her into the world, far harder than I fought to have the twins.

To go through the whole egg retrieval process, the stress and trauma on your body of injecting yourself to mature your eggs enough to retrieve them, and everything weve been through to have her. And then to face another fight, its unbelievable.

Pointing out how unfair the system is towards women, Rosanna stressed: Why was Wes allowed to take a DNA test immediately after the babys birth and be proven to be her father, yet Im still waiting two years later to even apply to be her guardian?

Why are we talking about female reproductive systems and Irish law once again? Have we not been here in the last few years?

Im so grateful that we do live in a world where there are women willing to carry a baby for another couple or individual and that we live in a world where medical science has made it possible, she said.

I think Ireland badly needs to catch up with advancements in embryology, methods of conception. Families obviously arent all created in the traditional way and its been like that for many years.

I want Sophia to grow up knowing that she is legally equal to her brothers. She still has to deal with the emotional load, and probably the shock, when we do tell her when shes old enough to understand that I didnt give birth to her to then face legal discrimination for the fact that I didnt give birth to her is another hurdle.

Shes an Irish citizen, as proven by her fathers DNA test, and she needs to be given the same legal opportunities that her brothers, and every other Irish child have.

Earlier this month, Rosanna joined Westlife star Mark Feehily and podcaster Georgie Crawford as they called for achange to Irelands surrogacy laws.

They spoke out after a report in the Sunday Business Post claimed the government will only legislate for domestic surrogacy in the forthcoming assisted human reproduction bill, and will not deal with international surrogacy until a later date.

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Rosanna Davison reveals she's still waiting to apply to be her daughter's legal guardian - Goss.ie

Embryology

The complete list of the Russian Nobel prize winners – Russia Beyond

Following Dmitry Muratov being awarded the Peace prize in October 2021, we recall other Russian laureates of various Nobel prizes over the years.

Ivan Pavlov

Famous for his experiments with dogs, a pioneer in physiology, Pavlov was Russias first ever Nobel prize laureate. He was awarded for his work on digestive physiology. Read more about Pavlov here.

Ilya Mechnikov

Famous biologist and pioneer in embryology, Mechnikov was also called father of innate immunity, and he opened cell-mediated immunity. However, by the time he got the prize for works on immunity, he had already worked for a decade in France, joining Louis Pasteur's institute. Read more about Mechnikovs discovery here.

Ivan Bunin

Ivan Bunin had already emigrated to France when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for the strict artistic talent with which he recreated the typical Russian character in literary prose. Read more about the fight between Ivan Bunin and Maxim Gorky for the prize and the Nobel family connection here.

Nikolay Semyonov

Semyonov was the only Soviet Nobel prize winner in chemistry. He gained the prize for his work on the mechanism of chemical transformation, together with a British physical chemist Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood.

Boris Pasternak

After his opus magnum Doctor Zhivago, banned in the USSR, was published in the West (not without CIA involvement), the Swedish Academy awarded him for his important achievement both in contemporary lyrical poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition. The prize caused a scandal in the Soviet Union and after a campaign of intimidation he was forced to decline the award.

Pictured L-R: Pavel Cherenkov, Igor Tamm and Ilya Frank

Three physicists shared the Nobel Prize for the discovery of Cherenkov radiation which was made in the 1930s. Firstly Cherenkov noticed the blue glow of an underwater nuclear reactor, and then together with colleagues they researched and described the phenomenon.

Landau massively contributed to the development of theoretical physics and is considered a founder of the so-called "Landau school" of physicists. He was recognized for his pioneering theories for condensed matter, especially liquid helium. Read more about 'DAU' film saga named after Lev Landau.

Alexander Prokhorov and Nikolai Basov

The laser creators, two talented physicists, got the prize for "for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser-laser principle." They shared the award with American scientist Charles H. Townes who worked in the same field.

Mikhail Sholokhov

The author of the epic novel 'And Quiet Flows the Don' was awarded for the artistic power and integrity with which, in his epic of the Don, he has given expression to a historic phase in the life of the Russian people. This time the Soviet authorities recognized the award. Read more about Sholokhov here.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

The author who struggled with all the horrors of the Soviet labor camps, and then opened the Gulag for the mass reader, was awarded for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature. This time the Soviets started a propaganda campaign against Solzhenitsyn, and he was only able to receive his prize eight years later. Read more about the author here.

Leonid Kantorovich

The Soviet mathematician and economist was a founder of linear programming. He shared the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel with the Dutch-American Tjalling C. Koopmans for their contributions to the theory of optimum allocation of resources.

Andrei Sakharov

One of the founders of thermonuclear weapons, a dissident and human rights activist, Sakharov was awarded for his struggle for human rights in the Soviet Union, for disarmament and cooperation between all nations. Five years later he would be asked to leave the USSR for his political activism and campaign against the war in Afghanistan. Read more about Andrei Sakharov here.

Pyotr Kapitsa

A luminary of Soviet physics and a founder of the Institute for Physical Problems was awarded for his basic inventions and discoveries in the area of low-temperature physics.

Joseph Brodsky

Though he emigrated to the U.S. in 1972 and started writing essays in English, he remained a very Russian poet. A major intellectual, a professor of Russian literature in American universities, he was awarded for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity.

Mikhail Gorbachev

The first Soviet president is still one of the most controversial politicians in Russia, with many people split between blaming him for the collapse of the USSR or praising him for perestroika and freedom of speech. He was among those responsible for the fall of the Berlin Wall. He was awarded for the leading role he played in the radical changes in East-West relations.

Zhores Alferov

A renowned physicist and Russian parliament deputy, Alferov was awarded for developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed- and opto-electronics. He shared the prize with the German-American physicist Herbert Kroemer, who worked in the same field independently.

Alexei Abrikosov, Vitaly Ginzburg

Vitaly Ginzburg took part in the work of previous Nobel prize winners - Cherenkov and Landau, and was one of the authors of the GinzburgLandau theory of superconductivity. Their colleague Abrikosov helped develop the theory by discovering a fluxon called 'Abrikosov vortex' . Since the early 1990s he has lived in the U.S. Two big physicians shared the prize with the British-American physician Sir Anthony James Leggett for pioneering contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids.

Konstantin Novoselov

Scientist Novoselov left the country in the 1990s, and in the Netherlands he met another Russian-born physician Andre Geim. They started working together, and then moved to the UK, where they continued to collaborate. They are best known for discovering graphene. And they shared the Nobel Prize "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene."

Dmitry Muratov

The editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta was awarded along with Philippine journalist Maria Ressa for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace. It is symbolic that Muratov got the award on the 15th anniversary of the death of Anna Politkovskaya, a Novaya Gazeta journalist who was murdered due to her stories revealing human rights abuses in Russia and Chechnya.Read more about Dmitry Muratov here.

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Embryology

Merck Foundation Calls for Application for Scholarships for Doctors in Critical and Underserved Specialties in Africa and Developing Countries – THE…

(Eds: Disclaimer: The following press release comes to you under an arrangement with Business Wire India. PTI takes no editorial responsibility for the same.)Mumbai, Maharashtra, India&Monrovia, Liberia Business Wire India

Merck Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany announced the call for applications for medical training scholarships for healthcare providers in critical and underserved specialities for medical graduates from Africa and developing countries.

Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation explained, We strongly believe that building professional healthcare capacity and train healthcare providers is the right strategy to transform patient care in the public sector in Africa and developing countries. I am happy to announce the call for applications for scholarships for young local doctors in many critical underserved medical specialties. Our aim is to provide access to quality and equitable healthcare solutions by building professional capacity. I feel beyond proud that more than 1200 doctors from 44 countries have already benefitted from Merck Foundation scholarships in various critical and underserved fields such as Oncology, Diabetes, Preventative Cardiovascular Medicine, Endocrinology, Sexual and Reproductive Medicine, Acute Medicine, Respiratory Medicine, Embryology & Fertility specialty, Rheumatology, Gastroenterology, Dermatology, Psychiatry, Emergency and Resuscitation Medicine, Critical Care, Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Neonatal Medicine, Advanced Surgical Practice, Pain Management, Urology, General Surgery, Clinical Microbiology and infectious diseases, Ophthalmology, Internal Medicine, Trauma & Orthopedics, Neuroimaging for research Biotechnology in ART and more.

Merck Foundation has announced Call for Applications for the following online courses:

No.

Degree and Duration

Online Course Name

1

PG Diploma (1 year)

Diabetes

2

PG Diploma (1 Year)

Preventative Cardiovascular Medicine

3

PG Diploma (1 Year)

Sexual and Reproductive Medicine

4

PG Diploma (1 Year)

Endocrinology

5

PG Diploma (1 Year)

Respiratory Medicine

6

PG Diploma (1 Year)

Acute Medicine

7

PG Diploma (1 Year)

Rheumatology

8

PG Diploma (1 Year)

Gastroenterology

9

PG Diploma (1 Year)

Dermatology in Clinical Practice

10

PG Diploma (1 Year)

Clinical Psychiatry

11

MSc (15 Months)

Biotechnology of Human Assisted Reproduction and Embryology

12

PG Diploma (18 months)

Cancer and Clinical Oncology

13

PG Diploma (18 months)

Endocrinology and Diabetes

14

PG Diploma (21 months)

Emergency and Resuscitation Medicine

15

PG Diploma (21 Months)

Laparoscopic Surgical Skills

16

MSc (3 years)

Psychiatry

17

MSc (2 years)

Critical Care

18

MSc (2 years)

Advanced Surgical Practice

19

PG Diploma (2 years)

Neonatal Medicine

20

MSc (2 years)

Pain Management

21

PG Diploma (2 years)

Pediatric Emergency Medicine

22

ChM (Urology) (2 Years)

Urology

23

ChM (General Surgery) (2 Years)

General Surgery

24

ChM (Trauma and Orthopedics) (2 years)

Trauma and orthopedics

25

PG Diploma (2 Years)

Clinical Microbiology and infectious diseases

26

PG Diploma (2 years)

Primary Care Ophthalmology

27

PG Diploma (2 Years)

Internal Medicine

28

MSc (3 Years)

Neuroimaging for Research

How to Apply:

Applications are to be submitted to: https://merck-foundation.com/Merck-Foundation-Capacity-Advancement-Application-Form

Last Date to apply:

31st December 2021

Scholarship Eligibility Criteria

All Merck Foundation scholarships are provided to nationals of African Countries, Developing countries, and underserved communities as per the World Human Development Index list of Developing countries. Refer to the link: http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/latest-human-development-index-ranking

Merck Foundation Scientific Committee and Scientific Committee of Academic Partners will focus on African countries with a special focus on French-speaking and Portuguese speaking and SIDS (Small Islands Developing State), with the aim to build healthcare capacity and transform patient care in the public sector which is under pressure due to its limited resources. Therefore, requests from Ministries of Health (MOH) or Medical Societies are preferable. In case of individual requests, a recommendation letter from MOH or Medical Societies of these countries will be required to indicate your country's gap in the specific specialty and the objective of improving access to equitable and quality patient care in your community is identified and fulfilled.

Moreover, Merck Foundation Scientific Committee will take into consideration in the selection process the following factors when it is needed: The Human Development Index, Population and number of eligible applications received from each country, and number of scholarships that have been already provided to each country in such specialties.

Moreover, Merck Foundation plans to offer English courses to candidates applied from French and Portuguese speaking African countries and also to Latin American countries, to give them an equal opportunity to benefit from the online specialty training which is provided only in English (List of Online courses given above).

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Merck Foundation Calls for Application for Scholarships for Doctors in Critical and Underserved Specialties in Africa and Developing Countries - THE...

Embryology

Has evolution breathed its last? | Bob Seidensticker – Patheos

This is the conclusion of a critique of a Greg Koukl podcast about the death of evolution (part 1here). Since some Christians refuse to stop embarrassing themselves with this stupid argument, I will continue to see it as a civic duty to laugh at them.

After much overconfident bluster about why evolution has breathed its last, Koukl finally gives the three reasons supporting this conclusion.

1. Abiogenesis. First you have the insurmountable problem of getting living stuff from dead stuff.... This is not just a problem. This is an insurmountable problem. (17:45)

Insurmountable? Write your paper detailing the proof and collect your Nobel Prize. (True, there is no Nobel Prize in Biology, yet, but Im sure that will change once Koukl documents his breakthrough.)

What will you do if a consensus view for abiogenesisdoesdevelop over the next decade or so? Let me guess: youll not apologize, youll sweep under the rug the fact that you backed the wrong horse, youll hope that no one remembers, and youll stumble forward grasping for some new as-yet-unanswered question within science, learning absolutely nothing from the experience.

2. Cambrian Explosion. Koukl focuses on the basics, which is that he doesnt like evolution and thinks that the Cambrian Explosion is fatal to it. Hes not so good on details like when it happened (hes off by about a factor of six; in fact, it began roughly 541 million years ago and lasted for 2025 million years).

The big deal about the Cambrian Explosion is that most of the 30-some animal phyla (the top-level category, which defines the basic body plans) appear for the first time in the fossil record in this relatively brief period.

Here are some reasons why this rapid emergence of phyla isnt a nail in evolutions coffin.

Source:Wikipedia (with changes)

3. Genes dont explain everything. Mutation of DNA is a key part of evolution, but DNA only codes for protein. Thats only part of the picture, Koukl tells ushow do you get the body? That requires epigenetics. Thats not in the genes. Now, theyre working on it, trying to figure it out, but if its not in the genes, if the genes arent doing the work, then natural selection doesnt do its work on genetic mutations, then that is neo-Darwinism, and its dead (22:10).

Im not sure what Koukl is getting at. Embryology is fairly well understood, and we can see a single cell develop according to the body plan defined in its DNA. Magic isnt necessary. And, yes, epigenetics is a new and exciting aspect of genetics. There is much to be learned. But a naturalistic explanation remains the best explanation. If evolution is changing, well, thats just what science does as it adapts to new facts.

Taking a step back, I see several problems. One is the unstated idea that if evolution can be defeated, Creationism will step in to take its place as the explanation of why life is the way it is. NopeCreationism can only replace evolution when the evidence shows that it can better explain the facts.All the facts.

Scientific theories stand on their own merits, not on the failure of other theories. Or, if I could use a schoolyard analogy that might be more in Creationists wheelhouse: tattling on someone whos misbehaving in class doesnt improve your grade.

That Koukl is talking to the public and not to scientists reveals both his agenda and his impotence. Hes got PR, not evidence.

The other problem is that this entire tantrum seems to be semantic. His agenda seems to be finding a loophole so that you cant call it the neo-Darwinian Project anymore (ignoring the fact that no one worth listening to calls it that).

In Koukls wildest dreams, biology would develop in radical new ways so that evolution taught twenty years ago, say, will be seen as inadequate or incomplete in important ways. But how does that help? Once Koukls smoke screen clears, the naturalistic discipline that explains how life developed on earth (whatever you want to call it) is still there, with no role for God to play.

Ive written about two related issues, theRube Goldbergappearance of life (rather than appearance of design) and the question ofinformationin DNA.

Koukl next brings up atheist philosopher Thomas Nagel, who says that evolution wont allow for consciousness.

This is yet another question that might get answered, as tends to happen with scientific puzzles. Koukls argument is nothing more than: Science has unanswered questions; therefore, God. Again, he forgets that a weakness in science (I see no weakness here, but lets pretend there is) does nothing to support the God argument. Such an argument must stand on its own.

He concludes by ticking off the unanswered questionsabiogenesis, the Cambrian Explosion, and the evolution of consciousnessand concludes, Incidentally, these are no problem whatsoever for our point of view.

YeahGod did it explains everything. Of course, youve given us no good evidence for the God side of the question, but never mind. The real problem is that God did it is unfalsifiable. You could apply it to anything, and I couldnt prove you wrong. Therefore, its useless. By explaining everything, it explains nothing. Scientific theories must be falsifiable.

Koukls argument reminds me of Michael Dentons 1986 bookEvolution: A Theory in Crisis. His 30th-anniversary edition was titled Evolution:Stilla Theory in Crisis (emphasis added). Creationists keep predicting that evolution is dead, and it keeps not being dead. Perhaps theres a lesson here that Creationists arent learning.

What we have in Koukl is a popular Christian apologist (who has a religious agenda) who talks with a popular Christian science-y person (who has the same religious agenda) about their rejection of the scientific consensus. They reassure each other that theyve indeed backed the right horse, and they shore up their argument with smug confidence.

Popularizing consensus science is one thing (this is what I do sometimes), but rejecting it is another (this is what Koukl does, often). I put Creationists in with the anti-vaxxers.

See also: A Response to David Gelernters Attack on Evolution

The difference between a cult and a religion:in a cult there is a person at the top who knows its a scam,and in a religion that person is dead. seen on the internet

.(This is an update of a post that originally appeared 2017-5-24.)

Image from Phil Fiddyment (license CC BY 2.0).

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Has evolution breathed its last? | Bob Seidensticker - Patheos

Embryology

Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York Presents Innovative Research at ASRM’s 77th Annual Meeting – KKTV 11 News

RMA of New York leads the way with ground-breaking innovative genomics and artificial intelligence research to improve patient care and IVF success rates

Published: Oct. 19, 2021 at 9:00 AM MDT

BALTIMORE, Md., Oct. 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --Physicians and scientists at Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York (RMA of New York) and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York presented a record 35 original scientific abstracts at the 77th annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) in Baltimore, Maryland. Research topics included single cell DNA sequencing, disparities in health care outcomes, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the patient journey.

"Despite the unprecedented and ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, our team of trainees, care providers, and scientists demonstrated personal resilience, scholarly excellence, and unprecedented scientific ingenuity," stated Dr. Alan B. Copperman, Co-Director of RMA of New York, Vice Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.

COVID-19 and its effects on fertility and pregnancy were a focus of this year's academic congress. In a highly anticipated study led by Dr. Devora Aharon and co-authors at RMA of New York, the team explored whether there was any evidence of correlation between the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and the implantation rate of euploid embryos, and determined that vaccinated patients did not demonstrate compromised implantation rates or live birth rates. Further expanding on COVID-19 and fertility, a study by RMA of NY and Generate Life Science (Los Angeles, CA) demonstrated that sperm counts are not affected in healthy donors who test positive for COVID-19.

Dr. Jenna Friedenthal presented novel research focused on gaining greater insights into the development of mosaic embryos. Her research on single cell sequencing of whole human blastocystsexpands our current understanding of the genetic composition of human embryos. Exploring early development, the results demonstrate that some degree of embryonic mosaicism may be part of normal human embryonic blastocyst development.

Additionally, Dr. Alan Copperman and RMA of New York's Clinical Embryology Associate Laboratory Director, Richard Slifkin, were selected to host a symposium highlighting the future of fertility with artificial intelligence in the IVF laboratory. Dr. Copperman added, "This is the year we really were able to leverage big data and create personalized predictive models that provide clinical decision support to help patients make more informed decisions.From the molecular to the personal to the community level, we are making tremendous strides towards preventing and treating infertility and enhancing access to care for all."

About Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York, LLP

Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York (RMA of New York) is widely recognized as a global leader in state-of-the-art reproductive medicine. Led by an integrated team of doctors and scientists with extensive reproductive endocrinology, fertility and urology experience and training, RMA of New York consistently reports high success rates in the treatment of infertility to the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). RMA of New York is committed to increasing access to care by helping patients optimize their insurance coverage and access financing options for treatment. RMA of New York is sensitive to the needs of the LGBTQ+ community, women choosing single-parent motherhood, and women pursuing fertility preservation for elective indications as well as those in need of oncofertility services. Headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, RMA of New York has six patient care facilities in New York, including four facilities in Manhattan, as well as sites in Brooklyn, White Plains, Mount Kisco, throughout Long Island, and abroad in Mexico City. For more information, please visit http://www.rmany.com .

Media Contact: Agnes Stachnik, astachnik@rmany.com

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SOURCE Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York

The above press release was provided courtesy of PRNewswire. The views, opinions and statements in the press release are not endorsed by Gray Media Group nor do they necessarily state or reflect those of Gray Media Group, Inc.

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Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York Presents Innovative Research at ASRM's 77th Annual Meeting - KKTV 11 News

Embryology

Abortion is not an act of love – The Christian Post

By Zachary Mettler | Monday, October 18, 2021A pregnant pro-life demonstrator and her daughter kneel before the Supreme Court in Washington October 6, 2008. Amid a presidential race that may decide its future direction, the Supreme Court began a new term today with cases about tobacco company lawsuits, protecting whales from Navy sonar and a government crackdown on dirty words on television. | (Photo: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

The abortion industry often uses lofty language to dress up appalling actions. Phrases like termination of a pregnancy, abortion care, reproductive health care and pro-choice are just a smattering of examples.

This tactic was on full display recently at the United States Capitol.

During the House Oversight Committees hearing on newly enacted pro-life laws, Dr. Ghazeleh Moayedi, an OB-GYN, testified against Texas Senate Bill 8 (SB8). The bill took effect on September 1 and outlawed abortions after a preborn babys heartbeat can be detected.

While speaking against SB8, Dr. Moayediaddedthis pernicious line.

I know firsthand that abortionsaves lives. For the thousands of people Ive cared for, abortion isa blessing, abortion is anact of love, abortion isfreedom (emphasis added)."

If you did a double-take after reading that, youre not alone.

These brash and brazen lies should shock the conscience.

Lets start with the doctors assertion that abortion saves lives.

Weve heard much about following the science over the last year and a half. And when discussing life in the womb, the science is crystal clear. Life begins at conception.

The scientific field of embryology confirms this.

Keith Moore, Ph.D.,writesinEssentials of Human Embryology, Human development begins after the union of male and female gametes or germ cells during a process known as fertilization (conception).

T.W. Sadler, Ph.D.,concludesinLangmans Medical Embryology, The development of a human begins with fertilization.

And Bruce M. Carlson,M.D., Ph.D.writesinPattens Foundations of Embryology, Almost all higher animals start their lives from a single cell, the fertilized ovum (zygote) The time of fertilization represents the starting point in the life history, or ontogeny, of the individual.

As to when life begins, the science is settled.

Therefore, every abortion takes at least one life. That of the preborn child.

Now, is abortion a blessing or an act of love?

Not even close.

Thomas Aquinas defined love as willing the good of the other.

A woman who actively wills the elimination and destruction of her preborn child is acting directly contrary to love. As are those men who encourage their partner to abort their child.

And if you ask almost any parent, theyll tell you that though parenthood is challenging and trying, children are a blessing.

Abortion, the violent and systematic elimination of those children, isnt.

For those who deliberately obscure what abortion really is, the Good Book has something to say: Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness. (Isaiah 5:20).

Pope John Paul II, in his 1995 encyclicalEvangelium Vitae, translated The Gospel of Life, wrote, Today there exists a great multitude of weak and defenseless human beings, unborn children in particular, whose fundamental right to life is being trampled upon.

Only respect for life can be the foundation and guarantee of the most precious and essential goods of society, such as democracy and peace, he added.

Americans frequently pride themselves on living in the freest, greatest, and most exceptional nation on earth. Why else would a nearly 20 foot tall, bronze Statue of Freedom sit atop our U.S. Capitol building?

But consider, can a nation that kills nearly 1 millionpreborn children each year really be called exceptional, great or free?

If you were one of the hundreds of thousands of preborn children aborted in the United States this year, how would you see our nation?

To be clear, abortion isnt an act of love.

Choosing life is.

Zachary Mettler is a staff writer for The Daily Citizen at Focus on the Family.

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Abortion is not an act of love - The Christian Post

Embryology

Is there a link between vaccines and infertility in men? – Cosmos Magazine

Vaccines do have side effects, but there are some social-media users peddling myths that COVID-19 vaccines cause male infertility and sexual dysfunction.

This is not the case there is no established link between COVID vaccines and male fertility, though falling ill with COVID-19 may pose a risk of sexual dysfunction.

Currently there is no evidence that sperm count, semen volume and sperm motility are negatively affected by a vaccine. In fact, there is no evidence that any vaccine at all causes infertility in either males or females.

One preprint study, submitted in May 2021, found no difference in sperm characteristics of 43 men before and after vaccination with Pfizer. The volunteers came from a pool of men receiving IVF services, and 32% of the participants already had ineffective sperm.

Another study published in JAMA quantified sperm volume of 45 men before and after two doses of an mRNA vaccine (either Pfizer or Moderna) and saw no decrease in sperm count 70 days the life cycle of a sperm following the second dose. In fact, it found that semen volume, sperm count and sperm motility all significantly increased.

Eight of the men had low sperm count prior to vaccination, but this increased to normal levels after.

Because the vaccines contain mRNA and not the live virus, it is unlikely that the vaccine would affect sperm parameters, the authors point out in the paper.

In 2017, about seven in 1000 men of reproductive age were affected by male infertility. With 2.8 billion people fully vaccinated globally, we would expect to see a significant and large increase in reported male infertility in 2021 except we havent seen this reported.

The International Federation of Fertility Societies, the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the British Fertility Society and the Association of Reproductive and Clinical Scientists have all released statements that there is no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines cause infertility.

There were no Therapeutic Goods Administration reports of infertility or fertility issues following the administration of 28.7 million vaccine doses in Australia, but there were six mentions of penile discomfort. There was no established link, however, between the vaccine and the discomfort.

Regardless, public concern does remind us that research about COVID-19, vaccines and male fertility is crucial.

The nature of vaccine hesitancy is complex. Sometimes, rumours can circulate because a question was asked that became misconstrued over time as a statement.

Other times, a fact may be taken out of context.

The Society for Male Reproduction and Urology (SMRU) and the Society for the Study of Male Reproduction (SSMR) issued a joint statement with this example: It should be noted that about 16% of men in the Pfizer/BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial experienced fever after the second dose. Fevers can cause temporary declines in sperm production. Thus, if a man experiences fever as the result of the COVID-19 vaccine, he may experience a temporary decline in sperm production, but that would be similar to or less than if the individual experienced fever from developing COVID-19 or for other reasons.

Since the life cycle of a sperm is only 70 days, future sperm production is unlikely to be affected by a fever.

In another instance, a circulating video involving Dr Roger Hodkinson stated that ACE2 receptor is present in the testes and its actually on the cells that produce spermatozoa. The video was accompanied by rhetoric claiming that this showed vaccines were unsafe.

However, many facts were omitted.

First of all, this information was based on a paper published in Biology of Reproduction. In the study, researchers found that the ACE2 receptor, which is found on the cell membrane of some organs, was high in the testes and interacted with SARS-CoV-2. Because of this, the researchers suggested there should be further research into the association between male reproductive health and male COVID patients.

The key here is that this study was not about vaccines it was about the coronavirus itself.

The researchers told FactCheck that the paper is a hypothetical article about the potential effect of SARS-CoV-2 infection on male reproductive health, not about the impact of COVID-19 vaccine on male reproductive health.

Ironically, the paper didnt prove that SARS-CoV-2 influenced male fertility, either.

But it did prompt further research.

There isnt an established link between COVID-19 and sperm count, but there is evidence that the virus is present in the testes and penis.

An autopsy of six men who died of COVID showed that three of them had a lower sperm count than expected, although this is a small sample and may not represent all survivors.

Likewise, the biopsy of another patient who recovered from COVID showed that the virus was still present in the testes three months later.

The same team also found that coronavirus affected the penis, with the virus still present in the penile tissue of two men seven and nine months after their diagnosis. Both men had developed erectile dysfunction, potentially because the infection reduced blood flow.

This trend is consistent with studies on the 2006 SARS outbreak, which is a close cousin of COVID.

A meta-analysis published in March suggested that there hadnt been enough time to assess the long-term effects of COVID-19 on sperm count and quality, but there is definite evidence of an effect on testes and penile tissue, including inflammation and testicular discomfort in up to 19% of male patients.

While the effect of COVID-19 on sperm count is inconclusive at this stage, it is still highly unlikely that COVID vaccines can cause male infertility.

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Is there a link between vaccines and infertility in men? - Cosmos Magazine