About

I was initially trained as a physician and later earned a PhD in Biomedicine, choosing a research path over clinical practice to focus on innovations that translate into actionable clinical improvements. Throughout my 35 years tenure in human reproduction I acquired a deeply integrated expertise that spans reproductive embryology, physiology, and medicine. This unique perspective allows me to see the reproductive process as a single, interconnected puzzle.

I was fortunate to make several consequential contributions to experimental embryology, some of which were noted by Nobel Prize laureate Dr. Robert Edwards and I currently serve as president of the American College of Embryology, an organization dedicated to advancing the practice of reproductive embryology.

But I consider my most important contribution, resolving 70 years old paradox at the heart of reproductive physiology – why estradiol, long regarded as the physiological trigger of ovulation, could induce ovulation in postmenopausal women but not in those of reproductive age. Nearly twenty years of investigation culminated in a publication that editors of Fertility and Sterility introduced as “a sea change in reproductive physiology.”

This work corrected a central misconception of ovarian cycle by demonstrating that progesterone – not estradiol – is the true physiological trigger of the mid-cycle gonadotropin surge. The new model was later confirmed clinically, with the first reported live births following ovulation triggered by progesterone.

The new ovulation paradigm offers a unifying framework for several phenomena that had remained unresolved for decades: the variability and age-related shortening of the menstrual cycle, the consistency of single-egg ovulation, the link between vanishing follicles and post-mature oocytes, the impact of follicular-phase duration on egg quality, and the mechanisms of reproductive aging – even providing a new explanation for key features of PCOS.

It also introduced the concept of term maturation of the egg – the idea that, much like gestation, an oocyte requires a minimum “term” of development to reach full competence. Early clinical evidence, including published case reports, supports this concept.

As implications of new reproductive physiology started to settle, I began receiving requests from physicians to review cases of persistently poor egg quality. It quickly became clear that we needed a software to manage interactions with physicians, and over a couple years we developed an EMR specifically designed for researching infertility cases.

As each case evolved into a research project of its own, we quickly reached the limit of what we could manage. We attempted to train an AI agent to work on many cases simultaneously. Yet, after a year of trying various AIs, we came to accept that, while AI is helpful, the true understanding of complex cases cannot yet be automated. 

For this reason, we continue research every case manually and therefore can work on only two or three at a time to give them sufficient attention. Thus, all the software, including a mobile app, developed under Translational Fertility exists to support this highly selective, hands-on approach – focused on helping physicians with a small number of the most challenging cases.

We remain optimistic that, in time, either AI will advance to the necessary level allowing this work to scale. Until then, Translational Fertility will continue to serve as a boutique reproductive physiology resource, providing physicians with the next level of insight and precision that is grounded in the most up-to-date reproductive physiology and profoundly personalized.