Biography

After completing my fellowship in REI at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, I became a scholar of the Women's Reproductive Health Research (WRHR) Career Development Program sponsored by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHHD), for 1 ½ years. I then transferred to the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in 2008 and shortly thereafter I started the IVF program at the ROH Reproductive Medicine center. I obtained accreditation of our gynecology and early pregnancy ultrasound program by the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM). In addition, I have been serving as a consultant for LeBonheur-Methodist Children’s Hospital and for St. Jude Children Research Hospital, where I held clinic for children and adolescents with primary ovarian insufficiency and other sequalae of cancer treatment. Alongside my clinical activities, I pursued clinical, as well as translational and basic research, also involving residents, fellows and medical students. My research interests span from understanding the mechanisms of gonadotoxicity from chemotherapy, to ovarian tissue cryopreservation techniques and transplant, to understanding the pathophysiology, ultrasound diagnosis, and treatment, of congenital anomalies of the uterus and more specifically of the septate uterus; in addition, I have a keen interest in in vitro embryo development and ultrasound characterization of placentation and in utero embryo development in the initial 6 weeks of pregnancy. I have presented my research at national and international conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals. I have received the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) Star Award every year since 2014. I am involved in national and international medical societies and was recently the Chair of the Imaging in Reproductive Medicine Special Interest Group of ASRM and organized Post-Doc courses at the ASRM Annual Meeting in 2017 and 2020. In addition, I was the Course Director of the pre-conference Ultrasound Course “Pelvic Anatomy and Gynecologic Surgery Symposium” organized by the Cleveland Clinic and the University of Cincinnati in December 2017, 2018, and 2019. Currently, my main research interests are in gynecological and early obstetric ultrasound, and in fertility preservation. I created a multidisciplinary team to study the impact of chemotherapy on physical and ovarian development in a mouse model. We discovered a new peptide that could counteract and halt ovarian follicle development and hence prolong the reproductive life-span in females, for as long as it is administered. In addition, preemptive peptide administration will protect follicle burn-out during chemotherapy administration, delay the natural age of menopause and also prolong the subjects’ reproductive competence. My expertise, experience, and support have prepared me to lead the fertility preservation program at the Cleveland Clinic. During my 16 years in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, I have been teaching medical students, residents, fellows, and my fellow faculty, and each time I seize the opportunity to partner with them to sculpt their academic paths. Perhaps the most important legacy left behind by clinicians-scientists is the students we train, and I always try to do my best in providing mentoring and in making them think “outside of the box”.

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