Edition 2022
Grant: 75 000 Euro
- Theme: The development and evaluation of e-health support and educational programs
- Recipient:
Development and feasibility evaluation of a brief self-guided e-Learning training package to support fertility staff in sharing bad news with their patients.
Sofia Gameiro
Cardiff University (United Kingdom)
Grant: 200 000 Euro
- Theme: Long term clinical consequences of infertility and fertility treatment
- Recipient:
Risk of malignancies, cardiometabolic diseases and childbearing patterns in children born after various ART methods including fresh or frozen embryo transfer
Anja Pinborg
Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital (Denmark)
Edition 2021 (COVID-19)
Grant: 75 000 Euro
- Theme: Impact of COVID-19 on patients and/or ART services
- Recipient:
From individual to clinic to population: the economic, public health and regulatory consequences of the response to COVID-19 pandemic on IVF in Europe
Scott Nelson
University of Glasgow (UK)
Grant: 200 000 Euro (project finalised)
- Theme: Impact of SARS-CoV-2 on reproductive tissues, reproductive cells and/or (ART) pregnancy
- Recipient:
The effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection in human pre-implantation embryos
Manuel Viotti
Zouves Foundation for Reproductive Medicine (USA)
- Summary:
The study discovered that human embryos can be infected by SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19 and that the SARS-CoV-2 cell entry in embryos occurs through the canonical Spike-ACE2 pathway. The study further showed that infection by SARS-CoV-2 has negative effects on embryo health, , but also that protection may be provided by the Zona Pellucida. In general, the research provides insights into the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on embryos, their ability to develop into a pregnancy, as well as pregnancy losses and the documented lower birth rates during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Relevant publication(s): https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-18906-1
Edition 2020
Grant: 75 000 euro
- Theme: Sperm Freezing and Function
- Recipient:
Fertility preservation in (peri)pubertal boys: Developing an approach for simultaneous cryopreservation of sperm and spermatogonial stem cells from testicular biopsies.
Rod Mitchell
University of Edinburgh (UK)
Grant: 200 000 euro
-Theme: Protecting and Treating Male Fertility
-Recipient:
Exploiting multi-omics to assess and map the fertility potential of cryopreserved prepubertal testicular tissues
Anne Goriely
University of Oxford (UK)
Edition 2018
Grant: 50 000 euro
- Theme: Chromosome and DNA integrity of oocytes and embryos
- Recipient:
Probing actin-dependent chromosome cohesion in mammalian oocytes
Binyam Mogessie
University of Bristol (UK)
Grant: 150 000 euro
- Theme: Maternal determinants of embryo developmental ability
- Recipient:
Embryo quality revisited: understanding and treating the hidden impact of obesity
Roger Sturmey
University of Hull (UK)
Edition 2016
Grant: 50 000 euro (project finalised)
- Theme: endometrial receptivity
- Recipient:
Uterine fluid exosomes as a “liquid biopsy” for depicting personalized endometrial receptivity
Paola Vigano
Ospedale San Raffaele, Milano (Italy)
- Summary:
On the largest sample size of human Extracellular Vesicles (EVs) ever analyzed with RNA-sequencing, this study establishes a gene signature to use for less-invasive endometrial receptivity tests. Our results are indeed the first to show that the transcriptome of UF-EVs correlates with the endometrial tissue transcriptome, that RNA signatures in uterine fluid (UF)-EVs change with endometrial status, and that UF-EVs could serve as a reservoir for potential less-invasive collection of receptivity markers. These thus represent a step forward in the design of less-invasive approaches for real-time monitoring of endometrial status, necessary for advancing the field of reproductive medicine.
- Relevant publication(s): https://doi.org/10.1093/humrep/deab123
Grant: 150 000 euro (project finalised)
- Theme: endometrial receptivity
- Recipient:
Elucidating a new mechanism of endometrial receptivity establishment in women and its clinical significance
Guiying Nie
Monash University (Australia) and Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium)
- Summary:
Podocalyxin is a key and previously unknow negative regulator of human endometrial epithelial receptivity. It is expressed at the apical surface of all epithelial and endothelial cells within the human endometrium but is specifically down-regualted in the luminal epithelium at receptivity. This down-regulation is likely mediated by progesterone and would selectively convert the endometrial surface from a non-receptive to an implantation-permitting state. Epithelial podocalyxin may provide a new parameter for optimizing and evaluating endometrial receptivity.
- Relevant publication(s): https://doi.org/10.1093/humrep/deab032 and https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2021.06.028
Edition 2014
Grant: 150 000 euro (project finalised)
- Theme: none
- Recipient:
Can tyrosine kinase inhibitors protect the ovary against chemotherapy-induded damage?
Norah Spears
Universities of Edinburgh (UK) and Rome Tor Vergata (Italy)
- Summary:
Our work has shown that a novel ovarian culture method can be used to carry out large-scale screening to test drug effects on the ovary, with the method used to systematically testing a bank of tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Results show that GSK-3 inhibitors are best able to protect the ovary against cisplatin-induced damage, demonstrating that they protect follicle health, with GSK3-β involved in cisplatin-induced oocyte apoptosis.
- Relevant publication(s): https://doi.org/10.1093/humupd/dmz027