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Volume 6, No 4 June 2003
Dr Yury Verlinsky
Born in Siberia, Dr Yury Verlinsky was educated at Kharkov University in the former USSR where he graduated and obtained his PhD. He trained in Cytogenetics and Embryology, and began research in this field in the late sixties and early seventies. He still works with many of his colleagues and friends made in his post-graduate training period. His interests centred on human genetics and he developed his research ideas on migrating to the USA.
He wished to develop his ideas on the regulation of inherited disease. Amongst the first in the world, and the first in the United States to introduce chorionic villus sampling (CVS) for prenatal diagnosis in the early 1980s, in 1990 he pioneered the polar body testing for preimplantation genetic diagnosis. This became one of the two major approaches for preimplantation diagnosis. Four years ago, he also developed the methods for karyotyping of second polar bodies and individual blastomeres for preimplantation diagnosis of translocations.
Dr Verlinsky has also introduced for the first time an approach for preimplantation diagnosis of genetic disorders (PGD) combined with HLA testing. This resulted in the well-known study where the cord blood of an unaffected child, born after PGD, was used for saving the life of an affected sibling with Fanconi anaemia. This ‘designer baby’ led to headlines across the world.
Dr Verlinsky then initiated the pre-pregnancy preimplantation diagnosis of late onset disorders. This work resulted in the birth of the first child free from cancer predisposition determined by the p53 tumour suppressor gene mutation. Recently, he has extended the use of this technique for the world’s first case of prevention of Alzheimer’s disease, demonstrating the great usefulness of preimplantation diagnosis for the wide range of common disorders of adult life.
Yury Verlinsky is a founder and Director of the Reproductive Genetics Institute, Chicago, Illinois, USA. He has established an international network of IVF and Preimplantation Genetics Centres, performing thousands of clinical cycles annually. His network’s current accumulated experience in preimplantation diagnosis embraces almost half of the overall world experience.
He became a prolific author in his chosen subject. He has published more than 100 papers, including three books on preimplantation genetics, one of which is an Atlas of Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis. It provides a detailed manual for the establishment and realization of preimplantation diagnosis in the framework of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics Services. In his capacity as Chairman of the International Working Group on Preimplantation Genetics, and now also as President of the new Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis International Society (PGDIS), he is heavily involved in co-ordinating international activities in the field of preimplantation diagnosis.
Indefatiguable in the search for improvements in the care of his patients, and travelling incessantly, Dr Verlinsky is known worldwide for his devotion to his subject and his Institute. He is a welcome speaker at numerous international conferences reporting on his successful advances in his field. We are indeed fortunate to have him as an editor of Reproductive BioMedicine Online.
Dr Verlinsky is married, and his son works with him as Assistant Head of the DNA laboratory in the Reproductive Genetics Institute.
Reproductive BioMedicine Online 2003 Vol. 6, No. 4, 396
Keywords: biography, Editor
Webpaper 2003/923
© Reproductive Healthcare Ltd
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