PGDIS Newsletter
11TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON PREIMPLANTATION GENETIC DIAGNOSIS:
WHERE TO NEXT FOR PGD? BREGENZ, AUSTRIA, MAY 16-19, 2012
JUST 5 MONTHS AWAY

Dear Colleague,

The 11th PGDIS Conference in Bregenz, Austria, May 16-19, 2012, is now 5 months away, and we would like to update you regarding the preparation for the Conference, and Pre-and Post-Congress Workshops in different aspects of PGD (for more information visit www.pgdis-2012.com, and www.pgdis.org.

As you can see from the Provisional Program, the Bregenz Conference will address much wider range of topics than PGD, as the recent developments in related areas may soon move PGD from a research tool to the basic procedure in reproductive medicine and genetic practices.

First of all, the recent application of microarray technology and next generation sequencing may clearly improve the accuracy of PGD for genetic and chromosomal disorders, so array-CGH, SNP arrays, genome wide analysis and next generation sequencing for single cell analysis will be one of the major topics of the Conference. In addition some related theoretical issues, such as molecular aspects of meiosis and cell fate in the preimplantaion embryo will be also addressed.

On the other hand, because of increasing importance of clinical aspects of PGD, a number of Workshops will be organized on advance topics in clinical PGD, as well as a few debates on controversial issues in PGD, such as the optimal stage for performing biopsy procedures and reproductive outcome of preimplantation aneuploidy testing, prior to and after the application of 24-chromosome analysis, currently performed in a few dozens of thousands of cycles.

As PGD is still closely related to prenatal diagnosis practices, the developments in preconception screening by next generation sequencing, non-invasive approaches and impact of new technologies on prenatal diagnosis will be also reviewed.

To support the increasing demand for wider application of some specific PGD technologies, the Pre- and Post-Congress Workshops are also planned. Three one-day Pre- Congress Workshops will be held in Bregenz, on May 16, 2012, including (1) Array-CGH, (2) Gamete and embryo vitrification, (3) Time-lapse and blastocyst culture for embryo selection (www.pgdis-2012.com), and 1 three-day Post-Congress Hands-On Workshop “PGD for genetic and chromosomal disorders by blastocyst biopsy”- in Istanbul, 21-23 May, 2012, which, as usual, will be restricted to only 15 participants.

The deadline for abstract submission is February 15, 2012, with the advance registration for the 11th International Congress on Primplantation Genetic Diagnosis now open on the Conference website (www.pgdis-2012.com).

We are looking forward to welcoming you to the above Pre- and Post-Congress Workshops and 11th International Congress on Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis, Bregenz, 16-19 May, 2012.

Anver Kuliev, MD, PhD
Renee Martin, PhD, FCCMG
Executive Director of PGDIS President of PGDIS