What's an embryologist?

Mel Caddy is sitting at a desk in front of an EmbryoScope. She is looking through the viewfinder. Her brown hair is tied in a ponytail. Next to the EmbryoScope is a computer. On the computer screen is footage of a mouse egg that is undergoing mitochondrial donation.
mitoHOPE clinical embryologist Dr Melissa Caddy performs mitochondrial donation on mouse eggs

The mitoHOPE Program would not be possible without our team of embryologists.

Embryologists are scientists trained to perform fertility treatments, such as IVF. The mitoHOPE Program has 2 teams of embryologists: research embryologists and clinical embryologists.

Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute will be home to our research embryologists. They will work on the program’s preclinical research. The preclinical research aims to improve the techniques used in mitochondrial donation. Evidence found through this research will inform parts of the clinical trial. The mitoHOPE research embryologists are Dr Jeff Mann, Dr Yuko Takeda and Ross Stocker.

The embryologists for the mitoHOPE clinical trial are based at Monash IVF Group. They will perform mitochondrial donation to create embryos. The mitoHOPE clinical embryologists are Tegan Ekanayake and Dr Melissa Caddy.

Both the preclinical research and clinical trial aspects of the mitoHOPE Program will commence when the required regulatory approvals have been granted. Until then, the mitoHOPE embryologists are installing new equipment at the mitoHOPE laboratories, such as an EmbryoScope, and practising mitochondrial donation on mouse eggs.

EmbryoScopes can create videos that track embryos as they develop.

The below video was created by Ross Stocker. Ross is a PhD candidate and mitoHOPE research embryologist. The video shows a mouse embryo created through mitochondrial donation.

At the beginning of the video, small pronuclei are shown next to a large fertilised egg. Pronuclei come from the egg and sperm. When they join together, they combine the DNA from both the egg and sperm and create the first complete cell of the embryo.

Soon after the video starts, the pronuclei fuses with the egg and cell division begins. Four days later, at the end of the video, the divided cells have formed a blastocyst.

A blastocyst is a hollow ball of cells. Pregnancy occurs when the blastocyst attaches itself to the womb’s lining.