Mission
Combining breakthrough discoveries in stem cell biology and human embryology with short-term translational applications toward revolutionizing women’s fertility.
Impact
One in 10 women worldwide currently suffer from reduced fertility. This number is expected to rise rapidly, as professional women increasingly delay childbirth. In the U.S., women over the age of 40 during the last decade have become the most rapidly growing age group having children. Their limitations are, however, determined by quantity and quality of aging eggs, and failure of implantation after fertilization. OvaNova offers potential proprietary technologies for both of these limitations. Infinite numbers of patient-specific primordial germ cells can, for example, be generated from a simple skin biopsy, and molecularly guided toward mature eggs. OvaNova also offers a unique platform that models post-implantation human embryonic development in vitro and in real time, offering the unprecedented opportunity to understand embryo implantation and prevent early pregnancy loss.
Founders
OvaNova was founded by two world leaders in basic reproductive biology and reproductive clinical medicine
Ali Brivanlou PhD The Robert and Harriet Heilbrum Professor, is the Head of the Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology and Molecular Embryology at The Rockefeller University in New York City. He is the recipient of numerous national and international awards including the “Presidential Scientific Career Award,” the highest honor bestowed by the President of the United States upon American scientists. Dr. Brivanlou has published over 160 scientific articles in international journals. His expertise was recognized by the first executive order of President Obama, including his embryonic stem cell lines in the United States national registry. Additionally, he and his team successfully designed for the first time a platform to which a human blastocyst could attach in vitro allowing deciphering the mystery of human development for at least 14 days after implantation. The American Journal Science recognized this study, published in the British journal Nature, as the 2016 scientific breakthrough in all scientific fields.
For a more detailed bio, please see Dr. Brivanlou’s page at Rockefeller University.
Norbert Gleicher, MD President, Medical Director and Chief Scientist of The Center for Human Reproduction (CHR) in New York City. He is internationally recognized as a pioneer and worldwide leader in the field of IVF. He also holds a professorial appointment at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Vienna Medical School, Austria, and is President of The Foundation for Reproductive Medicine, a not-for-profit research foundation. Dr. Gleicher has published in excess of 400 peer-reviewed scientific articles in international journals, and is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including The Dr. Solomon Silver Award in Clinical Medicine in 1979, The Ehrenkreutz für Wissenschaft und Kunst of the Republic of Austria in 1991 (the highest scientific and cultural award of Austria) and being the Patrick Steptoe Memorial Lecturer of the British Fertility Society in 2009, a bi-annual lecture given at the invitation of the British Fertility Society by a leading contributor to the field of IVF.
For a more detailed bio, please see Dr. Gleicher’s page at Center for Human Reproduction.
Both founders also hold joint appointments at each other’s institution. OvaNova, thus, offers the unprecedented synergistic combination of a leading basic scientist and leading clinical reproductive endocrinologist, with unique abilities of generating translational science, quickly applicable to clinical care in one of the most rapidly growing specialty markets in medicine.
Contact Us
Location 21 East 69th Street
New York, NY 10021
Administrative Office T. 646-882-0830
F. 212-988-0250
Laboratory T. 212-994-4400
F. 212-994-4499