Introduction to Guest Editors

In this issue of Seminars in Reproductive Medicine, we are excited to bring you up-to-date information on the topic of preimplantation genetics. We were also very pleased to obtain two excellent guest editors for this issue, Dr. Alan Handyside and Dr. Kangpu Xu.

Professor Alan H. Handyside

Dr. Handyside performed the first case of preimplantation genetics, published in Nature in 1990, and has made several very important contributions to the field. His early research focused on the mechanism of allocation to the two primary cell lineages in the mouse blastocyst, the outer trophectoderm and inner cell mass, and he was involved in the first attempts to isolate embryonic stem cells with Matt Kaufman and Sir Martin Evans. At the same time as the Evans's group but working independently, Dr. Handyside developed the first transgenic mouse knockout of the hypoxanthine phosphoribosyl transferase gene using embryonic stem cells as a model of Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, the human X-linked inherited disease. Using this mouse knockout model and working with Marilyn Monk, he was able to demonstrate that enzyme-deficient embryos could be diagnosed at the preimplantation stages prior to transfer using a biochemical microassay on single cells biopsied from embryos at the eight-cell stage. Dr. Handyside subsequently joined Lord Robert Winston at Hammersmith Hospital in London, and in 1990 they achieved the first pregnancies following in vitro fertilization and preimplantation genetic diagnosis. Dr. Handyside was the first chairman of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) Special Interest Group in Reproductive Genetics and cofounder and first chairman of the ESHRE PGD Consortium. Currently he is a consultant in preimplantation genetics at London Bridge Fertility, Gynaecology and Genetics Centre, London; head of Preimplantation Genetics, BlueGnome Ltd., Cambridge (manufacturers of microarrays for preimplantation genetics); and a visiting professor at the Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds.

Dr. Kangpu Xu

Dr. Kangpu Xu received his D.V.M. degree from Agriculture, Jiangsu, China, and an M.Sc. degree from Nanjing, China, followed by a Ph.D. from the Royal Veterinary & Agricultural University in Copenhagen, Denmark.

He is currently an associate professor of embryology and genetics and director of the Laboratory of Preimplantation Genetics in the Ronald O. Perelman and Claudia Cohen Center for Reproductive Medicine at Weill Medical College of Cornell University.

Dr. Xu is recognized as a national and international expert in the field of preimplantation genetics and widely sought as an invited lecturer on the topic. He has an extensive list of publications and reviews on preimplantation genetics and early embryo development to his credit.