Speaker

Santiago Munné PhD linkedin

Dr. Munné is the Founder and Director of Reprogenetics. Originally from Barcelona, Dr. Munné gained his Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Pittsburgh and in 1991, joined Dr. Jacques Cohen at the Cornell University Medical College located in New York City. It was at Cornell, he developed the first Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) test to detect embryonic numerical chromosome abnormalities to avoid Down’s syndrome and other abnormalities. The Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology recognized this and his following work with two consecutive prizes in 1994 and 1995. Dr. Munné became the Director of Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis at The Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science of Saint Barnabas in 1995. It was at the institute, he developed the first test to detect chromosome translocations in human embryos, which significantly reduces the chance of select patients losing their pregnancy, while avoiding birth defects associated with this condition.

In 1996, he received a general program prize by The American Society for Reproductive Medicine for this work. Following his research on PGD of aneuploidy, his group also demonstrated a significant decrease in spontaneous abortions after PGD in women 35 and older undergoing IVF and PGD, which was again recognized in 1998, with the prize paper of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology. His PGD team has been able to show higher implantation rates, lower rates of spontaneous abortions as well as trisomic offspring in women of advanced maternal age or with recurrent miscarriages after PGD. At the 2005 meeting of The American Society of Reproductive Medicine, their team obtained the SART prize paper for their work on obtaining chromosomally normal stem cells from trisomic embryos.

Dr. Munné’s research interests include developing new PGD techniques, understanding the impact of chromosome abnormalities in human reproduction, as well as the production and study of genetically defined stem cells. Dr. Munné has published over 200 publications, and is a frequent lecturer, both nationally and internationally. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis International Society (PGDIS) and during 2008, served as the president of that organizing committee. Since its inception in 2001, Dr. Munné has been director of Reprogenetics, a laboratory providing PGD services throughout the United States, Europe, Japan and South America. His PGD team has performed over 22,000 PGD cycles; averaging near 4,000 cases a year. Under Dr. Munné’s direction, Reprogenetics was the first laboratory in the United States accredited by a regulatory agency (NYDH) to perform any type of PGD, and is also CLIA approved. Currently, Reprogenetics is focused on promoting the use of microarrays for comprehensive analysis of chromosome and genetic diseases, and blastocyst biopsy to minimize embryo damage during biopsy.