Dr. Ashok Agarwal: IVF Expert of the Year 2019 American College of Embryology Names Dr
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Dr. Ashok Agarwal: IVF Expert of the Year 2019 American College of Embryology Names Dr. Ashok Agarwal, IVF Expert of the Year 2019 Dr Ashok Agarwal is the Director of the Andrology Center at the Cleveland Clinic and the Director of Research at the American Center for Reproductive Medicine. He has held these positions for the past 26 years, since the inception of the Center. Under his visionary leadership, the Andrology Center has become a center of excellence in the United States for the advanced diagnosis of male infertility and fertility preservation of men with oncological conditions. Ashok is also a Professor of Surgery (Urology) at the Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University and a staff member in the Cleveland Clinic's Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute. Throughout his distinguished career, Ashok has received over 125 research grants and published more than 735 research papers and 225 book chapters in specialized medical journals and books. Ashok is ranked in Scopus as the top-ranking author worldwide in the fields of Male Infertility/Andrology and Human Assisted Reproduction, based on his number of peer-reviewed publications, citation scores and Hirsch index (h-index). As of October 2019, his h-index was 97 on Scopus and 127 on Google Scholar, and his citation count was 32,169 on Scopus and 68,275 on Google Scholar. Based on his outstanding research in reproductive medicine, Ashok was listed by Expertscape as a top-rated world expert in male infertility. Ashok and his team has presented more than 800 papers at both national and international scientific meetings. He has also been invited as a guest speaker to over 30 countries and directed more than two dozen Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) and andrology laboratory practical workshops and symposia. Ashok serves on the editorial board of 11 peer review journals and has been a guest editor of 10 special issues, with 3 more in the pipeline. Ashok is currently an editor of 40 medical text books or manuals in the fields of reproductive medicine, fertility preservation, male infertility, fertility preservation and assisted reproduction. Ashok, along with Dr. Dmitri Dozortsev and Dr. Zsolt Peter Nagy, was instrumental in the inception of the American College of Embryology in November 2009. He also served as the first Chairman of the Board of the American College of Embryology between 2009 and 2012. He currently serves on the executive committee of Alpha, an international society that promotes the advancement of the art and science of clinical embryology. Ashok is certified by the American Board of Bioanalysis as a Clinical Laboratory Director (HCLD) in Andrology. He also serves as an Inspector for the College of American Pathologists ‘Reproductive Laboratory Program’ for accreditation of Andrology and In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) Laboratories. Dr. Ashok Agarwal was born in Lucknow, India. He pursued a tertiary education at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi, India where he obtained his M.S. with specialization in Reproductive Physiology in 1977. Ashok continued his research work in the Reproductive Physiology Laboratory at BHU under the guidance of the late Professor CJ Dominic, a prominent researcher in mammalian reproductive pheromones, mammalian reproduction, and fertility control. Ashok was awarded a Ph.D. in Zoology with a specialization in Mammalian Reproductive Biology in 1983. His doctoral research centred on investigating the epididymal histology, histochemistry, and biochemistry of several local mammalian species from a comparative point of view. Ashok’s intense doctoral training was instrumental in shaping his career in the area of mammalian reproductive biology. In 1984, Ashok moved to the United States when he was awarded a Fellowship in Reproductive Biology by the Rockefeller Foundation in New York. He spent two years as a post-doctoral researcher in Dr. Anita P. Hoffer’s laboratory in the Division of Urology at Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. Early research published from his time at Harvard revolved around investigating the anti-fertility effects of gossypol in animal models and then on male contraception. This widening background strengthened his research focus on male infertility and andrology. Dr. Ashok Agarwal: IVF Expert of the Year 2019 | AMERICAN COLLEGE OF EMBRYOLOGY At Harvard, Ashok’s interest in research was further stimulated by his senior colleague and close friend, Dr. Kevin R Loughlin,a well-known urologist whose inquisitive mind had a flair for simplifying complex basic science research into clinically relevant information. Their research revolved around the assessment of sperm function with a focus of utilizing basic research knowledge to investigate specific clinical problems of male infertility. Upon completion of his post-doctoral training in 1986, Ashok took on the position of Director of the Clinical Andrology Laboratory and Sperm Bank at the Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Boston (Medical Director: Late Dr. Robert “Bob” Newton) where he gained valuable experience in managing a busy clinical facility for two years. In 1988, Ashok was appointed at the Harvard Medical School as the Director of the Andrology Laboratory and as an Instructor in Surgery in the Division of Urology. Along with his teaching position, Ashok also served as the Coordinator of Andrology Testing in the Reproductive Endocrinology Laboratory at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. Here he deepened his study of andrology and gained further experience in directing and conducting research in male infertility. Equipped with newer and wider research skillsets, Ashok was promoted to Assistant Professor in the Division of Urology and Director of Male Infertility Research at Harvard. Ashok was recruited in 1993 to head the Clinical Andrology Center at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Ashok takes immense pride in having built the Clinical Andrology Laboratory from the ground up to become one of the finest advanced diagnostic facilities of its kind in the United States. At present, this specialized clinical laboratory provides a wide variety of comprehensive testing and diagnostic modalities for infertile couples and fertility preservation services utilizing latest technological advances to meet patient needs. The laboratory’s fertility preservation services include a reliable system for the long-term preservation of human semen, epididymal aspirate and testicular tissue. Ashok and co-workers at the Andrology Center designed and co-developed the novel NextGen® Home Sperm Banking kit (Agarwal, Sharma et al. 2016). This home sperm banking program allows patients to collect semen specimens in the privacy of their own homes. The specimens can then be shipped overnight in a specially designed container that preserves sperm function and fertilizing capacity. Ashok and his team were presented with Innovator Awards in 2011 and 2012 for their pioneering remote sperm banking program that provides a safe and reliable practice for storage of semen samples. The Andrology Center continues to develop new and more precise sperm function tests for diagnostic purposes. In addition to these clinical services, Ashok is responsible and heavily involved in basic and translational research in the fields of male infertility and human assisted reproduction. Ashok’s research interests were centred on studies of oxidative stress and its impact on the male fertility potential. In 1999, Ashok’s team described a novel measure of oxidative stress, the ROS–TAC score, which could be used to discriminate fertile men from infertile ones (Sharma, Pasqualotto et al. 1999). Ashok and co-workers proposed the ROS–TAC score as an important measure to identify those patients with a clinical diagnosis of male infertility whose female partners were likely to become pregnant. Ashok and his colleagues observed that DNA damage and ROS production were significantly higher in immature spermatozoa (with abnormal head morphology and cytoplasmic retention) than inmature ones. This led the team to propose that as sperm migrate from the seminiferous tubules to the epididymis, mature spermatozoa could be subjected to oxidative DNA damage by the presence of ROS-producing immature spermatozoa, leading to infertility in some men (Gil-Guzman, Ollero et al. 2001; Ollero, Gil-Guzman et al. 2001). Ashok and his research team investigated ROS levels and their relationship with sperm quality in infertile men. They proposed that high ROS levels are an independent marker of male factor infertility, regardless of whether the normal or abnormal semen parameters in those patients (Agarwal, Sharma et al. 2006). Another study showed that sperm DNA damage is significantly increased in 1) men with idiopathic infertility, 2) men with male factor infertility and 3) men who failed to initiate a pregnancy after assisted reproductive techniques (Saleh, Agarwal et al. 2003). They also found that regardless of the clinical diagnosis and semen characteristics in infertile males, the presence of seminal oxidative stress was suggestive of its role in the pathophysiology of infertility (Pasqualotto, Sharma et al. 2000). Moreover, it was also demonstrated that infertile men with varicoceles have significantly increased sperm DNA damage that appeared to be related to elevated seminal oxidative stress levels (Saleh, Agarwal et al. 2003). In patients with male factor infertility, Dr. Ashok Agarwal: IVF Expert of the Year 2019 | AMERICAN COLLEGE OF EMBRYOLOGY