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Professional

Speaker on the stage at the Cryos Symposium

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<h2><span class="display-3">Speakers<br /><br /></span></h2>

Savia Orphanidou

Savia Orphanidou, Member of Parliament in Cyprus

Ole Korneliussen

Ole Korneliussen, Cryos Donor

Anastasia Papadopoulou

Anastasia Papadopoulou, Partner at Tassos Papadopoulos and President of FONI

Evelyn E. Telfer

Prof. Evelyn Telfer, The University of Edinburgh

Saghar Kasiri

Director of European Operations Saghar Kasiri, Cryos International

Corey Burke

Tissue Bank Director Corey Burke, Cryos International

Anja Pinborg

Prof. & MD Anja Pindborg, Rigshospitalet

Niels Jørgensen

MD & PhD Niels Jørgensen, Rigshospitalet

Allan Pacey

Prof. Allan Pacey, University of Sheffield

Christine Bo Hansen

MD Christine Bo Hansen, University of Copenhagen

Jean-Pierre Allam

Dr. Jean-Pierre Allam, University Hospital of Bonn

Joyce Harper

Prof. Joyce Harper, University College London

Gilad Evrony

MD & PhD Gilad Evrony, NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Jonathan Shoag

MD Jonathan Shoag, surgeon-scientist, University Hospitals Cleveland

Seppe Segers

PhD Seppe Segers, Ghent University

Accordions

Speakers

Headline

<p><span class="display-6">On this page, you can learn more about the different speakers attending the 2021 Cryos Symposium in Cyprus.</span></p>

Cryos

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Savia Orphanidou is a graduate from the English School in Nicosia, studied BSc in Economics and Politics and has a MA in International Political Economy at Warwick University, UK. She worked at the Ministry of Finance for 13 years and in 2017, she was seconded from the Ministry of Finance to the European Investment Bank (EIB) in Luxembourg to work on EIB’s operations in Cyprus. She became a Member of the Parliament (MP) in December 2019. In February 2020, Savia became the first public figure in Cyprus to announce her pregnancy with a sperm donor. Through her personal experience, she promoted policies, which aimed at facilitating the right of every woman to maternity, especially via the IVF procedure. One of the most important issues that she managed to change was to include single women and women in a relationship outside marriage in IVF Government Grant Scheme.  Savia is currently the Vice Chairwoman of the Parliamentary Committee of Health and a member of the Finance Committee, the Environment Committee, and the Public Expenditure Control Committee. Her framework of interests includes financial and investment issues, maternity issues, health issues, protection of the environment and climate change, and support of animals.

Ole Korneliussen started as an anonymous donor (also known as Non-ID Release Donor) in 1997. At that time, he was 23 years old and had just moved to a new city to study. He thought being a donor would only be for a short period of time, but he continued to donate for 16 years. His motivation to donate was mainly driven by a change of perspective for him, from simply doing it to earn an extra income to being gripped by the desire to help others who were in need and would like to have a child.

Anastasia completed her studies in History at the University of Edinburgh and then graduated from the University of Cambridge with a degree in Law. She became a member of the Pancyprian Bar Association in 2002 and started working at the law firm Tassos Papadopoulos and Associates LLC where she became a Partner - a position she holds to date. On a voluntary basis she was a member of the Coordinating Committee of the Council of Europe for the One in Five Campaign against Sexual Abuse and Child Exploitation and a member of the team that worked on the legal ratification of the Lanzarote Convention against Child Sexual Abuse. In July 2015, she was appointed by the Council of Ministers as Special Advisor to the Ad Hoc Ministerial Committee for the development of a National Strategy for Combating Sexual Abuse and Sexual Exploitation of Children and Child Pornography and remained Special Adviser to the Government until 2016. Currently she is the President of the Council for the implementation of the National Strategy for the combatting of sexual abuse and exploitation of children “FONI” a position she was appointed to by the President of the Republic of Cyprus.

Evelyn Telfer holds a chair in Reproductive Biology at the University of Edinburgh and heads a research group in Ovarian Development within the Institute of Cell Biology and Genes and Development Group (CDBS). Her group has a particular interest in developing in vitro models to support oocyte development from immature stages in domestic species and humans. Evelyn has published widely in this area and is a regular invited speaker at international meetings. She has several international collaborations, and her research is funded by the Medical Research Council U.K. and The Welcome Trust. In 2019 she received the distinguished scientist award from the Society of Reproduction and Fertility and delivered the Anne McLaren memorial lecture at the U.K. Joint Fertility Societies meeting. Evelyn also has an interest in the public understanding of science, contributes to workshops, and delivers lectures at science festivals and other public forums. Evelyn was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2021 for services to female reproductive biology.

Saghar Kasiri is a Healthcare professional with an Executive MBA with Distinction from Cass Business School, with a background in Clinical Embryology and Fetal Medicine, and a track record of combining medical and scientific knowledge with commercial expertise having managed departments both in the NHS and private sectors. She has received the Business Woman of the Year Award for providing an insight into the transformation of UK healthcare management.   Her background speciality is in Clinical Embryology and she has an MSc in Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis & Fetal Medicine, and over 23 years of experience of working in the fertility field. She has advanced presentation skills obtained via high profile media appearances on TV, magazine, and the internet. She has provided expert opinion as a fertility specialist on current topics at the BBC World Service and in a Channel 5 News, also presenting regularly on fertility issues for the past seven years (100 episodes), for a TV programme screened by a London-based international satellite channel Manoto TV which is viewed by over 20 million viewers worldwide.

Corey Burke has worked in the reproductive industry for over 20 years. Working as an andrologist and embryologist, he has helped thousands of couples achieve their dream of becoming parents. Over the years he has run embryology, research, and diagnostic laboratories. In 2005, he was trained in the relatively new technology of vitrification of embryos and oocytes. Over the next 14 years, he started several fertility preservation programs and worked as a training consultant for a large commercial donor egg bank. Corey has vitrified tens of thousands of oocytes resulting in thousands of children.  Corey Burke has published several papers in peer-reviewed journals, presented at numerous scientific meetings, and has served on the American Association of Bioanalyst Legislative Committee, two FDA-workshop committees, and the scientific advisory board of a large biotechnology company. In 2014 Corey Burke joined Cryos International as Tissue Bank Director and established Cryos International’s first donor egg bank. As Tissue Bank Director, he is responsible for the safety and quality of donors, donor products as well as the scientific direction and quality assurance of Cryos egg banks around the world.

Anja Pinborg has been professor and medical director at the Fertility Department at Rigshospitalet since 2018. She graduated medical school in 1996, specialized in obstetrics and gynecology in 2010, is an expert in clinical reproductive medicine, and appointed professor at University of Copenhagen since 2013. Her main scientific focus areas are reproductive epidemiology including safety and quality aspects of ART with focus on child health and clinical research on optimizing ART and minimizing risks.   She has published 234 original papers and authored seven book chapters. She was president for the Nordic Fertility Society (2011-2015) and former medical advisor of the Steering committee for ESHRE certification of nurses and midwifes that developed a formal international education of nurse and midwife specialists in reproductive medicine. She was appointed editor in chief for Danish Medical Journal in 2015 and she is former associate editor of Human Reproduction Update, RBMOnline and Acta Obs Gynecol Scand (AOGS).

Niels Jørgensen is MD, PhD, specialist in medical endocrinology and EAA certified clinical Andrologist. He is head of the clinical andrology section at Department of Growth and Reproduction at Rigshospitalet (The National University Hospital), Copenhagen, Denmark.  He has since 1996 undertaken and coordinated Danish and international scientific projects focusing on the testicular function of more than 12,000 fertile and infertile men from the general population. Besides describing the actual testicular function (semen quality and endocrine function) these studies have also focused on addressing the impact of exogenous exposures, lifestyle, genetic factors on testicular function, and testicular function and general health.

Allan Pacey is Professor of Andrology in the Department of Oncology and Metabolism at the University of Sheffield. His research interests include aspects of male fertility and he has published more than 200 research papers, book chapters, and review articles on the topic. He is a former Secretary (2005-2010) and Chairman (2012-2015) of the British Fertility Society as well as the current Editor in Chief of the BFS journal Human Fertility.  In addition, Allan is an accomplished science communicator and broadcaster. Recent television programmes include Me, My Brother and our Balls (2020), Alex Jones – Fertility and Me (2016), Britain’s Secret Code Breaker (2011), Donor Unknown (2011), The Great Sperm Race (2009), The Truth About Food (2007), Make me a Baby (2007) and Lab Rats (2004). In 2016 he was awarded an MBE by the Queen for services to Reproductive Medicine.

Christine Bo Hansen (MD, University of Copenhagen) has a great interest in obstetrics, gynecology, and infectious diseases. She wished to combine the two specialties and during the pandemic was lucky to work on two different projects concerning fertility and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) at the Fertility Clinic at Copenhagen University Hospital, Hvidovre.   The first project is, in collaboration with Cryos and CooperSurgical, examining the possibility of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) detection in the semen of SARS-CoV-2 positive men, and whether SARS-CoV-2 infection may affect male reproductive function. At Hvidovre Hospital she is also a part of a group which is investigating maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection. The aim of this research is to examine SARS-CoV-2 antibody development and the impact on obstetric and neonatal outcomes in women infected, their partners and their newborns.

Allam started working in the field of andrology in 2005 as a resident in the Department of Prof. Haidl. He has been a state board approved andrologist in 2009. Since 2021, he has been the director of the Department of Andrology at the University Hospital of Bonn, Germany, treating over 700 patients with more than 1200 sperm analysis per year. Ever since he started in andrology, his clinical and scientific interest has been on immunological aspects of male infertility.   To this date he has been author or coauthor of over 80 peer-reviewed articles, and he is head of Laboratory for Andrological Immunology. Together with colleagues from China he chaired two workshops on immunological aspects of male infertility focusing of immunological alterations in male as well as female urogenital tract causing infertility. Moreover, he is one of the presidents of the upcoming German national convention for reproduction in 2021. He is a board member of the German Society of Andrology (DGA) and an academician in the European Academy of Andrology (EAA) as well as director of EAA center in Bonn, Germany.

Joyce Harper is an author, academic, scientist and educator. She is Professor of Reproductive Science at University College London in the Institute for Women’s Health where she is Head of the Reproductive Science and Society Group and Director of Education. She is a Director of the Embryology and PGD Academy and founder of Global Women Connected. She has worked in the fields of fertility, genetics, and reproductive science since 1987, written over 200 scientific papers and published three books. She started her career as an embryologist, then moved into reproductive science and genetics. Now she is researching into fertility education, the social aspects of fertility and infertility, from social egg freezing to childlessness, and FemTech.  Joyce is a passionate educator at all levels, from the general public to PhD students. She is invited to numerous international meetings, including keynote and plenary lectures. She regularly appears on TV, radio and in the press.

Gilad Evrony is an Assistant Professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s Center for Human Genetics and Genomics, and the Departments of Pediatrics and Neuroscience & Physiology. He received his undergraduate degree in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from MIT and completed an MD and PhD at Harvard Medical School. His research is focused on developing new genomics technologies and the study of genetic mosaicism in health and disease.  His prior work has been recognized by several awards, including the ‘Eppendorf & Science Magazine Prize for Neurobiology’ and the MIT Technology Review ‘Top Innovators Under 35’ award. He also directs an Undiagnosed Diseases Program that identifies genetic diagnoses for children with rare syndromes that were not diagnosed by prior medical and genetic evaluations.

Jonathan Shoag is a surgeon-scientist at University Hospitals Cleveland, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. His research is focused on applying novel approaches to large-data and genomics to better understand and treat urologic disease. Jonathan received his MD from Harvard Medical School and went on to complete his general surgery internship, urology residency, urologic oncology fellowship, and master’s degree at Weill Cornell Medicine. He is a member of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center's GU malignancy program and an Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor of Urology at Weill Cornell.  Jonathan Shoag is the recipient of a Damon Runyon Physician-Scientist Training Award, an American Urological Association Research Scholar Award, an NIH R21, an ASCI Young Physician Scientist Award in addition to others. His work thus far has yielded first author publication in journals including JCI, NEJM, JAMA Oncology, and JCO.  His current work is focused on understanding the relationship between mutation, health, and disease.

Seppe Segers is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences at Ghent University (Belgium), Bioethics Institute Ghent and Metamedica. He obtained his PhD in Philosophy with a doctoral thesis on the ethics of stem cell derived gametes and the normative significance of the desire to have genetically related offspring. His main research interests concern the ethics of reproductive medicine, embryo research, germline gene editing, fetal medicine, and the moral importance of genetic parenthood.   He also works on the impact of disruptive innovation in healthcare on medical ethics. He has presented at several international conferences, has published numerous scientific contributions about these topics in leading international journals, and has edited a special journal issue on normative discourses and lived meanings of parenting. Furthermore, he teaches courses in bioethics and engineering ethics. He has been the secretary of the Bioethics Institute Ghent since 2016 and in 2018 he was awarded the EACME Prize for young talented scholars.