Education Program in Reproduction & Development

Vitirification workshop January 2008

EPRD’s Dr Sally Catt and Dr Mulyoto Pangestu have been undertaking vitrification research since the 1980s. Their recent FSA publications, allied with teaching vitrification techniques in the Masters of Clinical Embryology course, prompted the idea to run a specialized vitrification short course at MIMR’s Centre of Reproduction and Development.

The course was held on 21-22 January and attended by 13 specialists from fertility clinics in Australia (Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne) and Indonesia.

The workshop commenced with a morning of specialist talks, including presentations by Dr Sally Costigan (Sydney IVF) and Dr Jim Catt (Monash IVF), giving up to date information on the clinical implementation of vitrification.

For the next day and a half, mouse embryos of all stages were available for the hands-on training, with extra equipment provided by Cryologic, Olympus and Pathtech; product talks were by Cryologic, Cook Medical Women’s Health and Gytech while Vitrolife, Medicult, and Quantum Scientific also  provided samples or trade stands.

The 2-day workshop together with an enjoyable dinner at Soul Mama’s in St Kilda provided an accessible and vibrant opportunity for highly trained clinical embryologists to share their ideas and to develop expertise in the finer points of vitrification.