Introduction to Guest Editors

The key to the amazing success and growth of assisted reproduction is a state-of-the-art laboratory, a team of dedicated staff, and a leader with vision and attention to the smallest details. In this issue we have two guest editors, Dr. Catherine Racowsky and Dr. Douglas Carrell, who are both leaders and team players in assisted reproductive technology (ART) and whose expertise complement one another perfectly for this issue devoted to the ART laboratory.

Dr. Catherine Racowsky is the director of the Assisted Reproduction Laboratory at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and a professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Catherine Racowsky's English is impeccable, and small wonder as she earned a B.A. in zoology at the University of Oxford, a Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge in reproductive physiology, and did postdoctoral fellowships in the Department of Ob/Gyn and Physiology at Harvard Medical School.

The primary goals of Dr. Racowsky's research program are to improve the understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the meiotic process in mammalian oocytes and the developmental programming of human embryos. Secondary goals encompass investigation of disruption of these fundamental processes by environmental toxins with a particular current focus on bisphenol A, improved protocols for oocyte freezing, and study of an association between obesity and oocyte and embryo quality. Dr. Racowsky has outstanding scholarly productivity with 90 peer-reviewed papers, 15 book chapters, and 5 books to her credit.

Aside from these research interests, Dr. Racowsky is a board member of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), a member of the ASRM Practice Committee that writes the U.S. guidelines and educational bulletins for reproductive medicine, an associate editor of Human Reproduction and Fertility and Sterility, and an editorial board member of Reproductive Biomedicine Online and the Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics.

Dr. Douglas Carrell is the director of the Andrology and IVF Laboratories at the University of Utah, where he is also co-chief of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility and also a professor of surgery (urology), obstetrics and gynecology, and physiology at the university. He did his undergraduate and master's degrees at Brigham Young University in zoology and cellular and developmental biology, respectively. He then earned a Ph.D. in physiology at the University of Utah. He has board certifications as a high complexity laboratory director in both andrology and embryology. He is the co-editor of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility: Integrating Modern Clinical and Laboratory Practice.

Dr. Carrell maintains an active and productive research program. The focus of his laboratory remains genetic and epigenetic causes of male infertility. His group has recently published the first genomewide association study for male infertility (Journal of Andrology), and the first genomewide analysis of epigenetic factors in sperm (Nature). Current studies include genomewide analysis of copy number variation in male infertility. Dr. Carrell has published 137 peer-reviewed papers, 17 book chapters, and 8 books including the well-received Genetics of Male Infertility.

Dr. Carrell is a respected leader in clinical andrology and co-organizer of the biennial international symposium “International Symposium on the Genetics of Male Infertility.” He is also the co-editor of the ongoing book series, Biennial Review of Infertility, serves as an associate editor of Frontiers in Epigenomics and Systems Biology in Reproductive Medicine, and serves on the editorial boards of the Asian Journal of Andrology, Fertility and Sterility and the Journal of Experimental and Clinical Assisted Reproduction.