Nick Macklon trained in Edinburgh, and carried out his doctoral research in Glasgow before taking a Fellowship in Fetal Medicine in Rotterdam. He was subsequently appointed Senior Lecturer and Director of the Assisted Conception Unit. In 2005 he was appointed Professor of Periconceptional Medicine and Infertility at the Utrecht University Medical Centre, where he became head of the Department of Reproductive Medicine and Gynaecology. In 2009 he returned to the UK to take the Chair in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Southampton, where he is also a founder and Director of the „Complete Fertility Centre Southampton".

Professor Macklon has published more than 100 PubMed cited articles in the fields of ovarian stimulation and endometrial receptivity. He currently leads research groups in Southampton and Utrecht, where he holds a Visiting Chair. In addition to contributing chapters to standard texts in the field, he has published two books, the award winning IVF in the Medically Complicated Patient, and more recently the Textbook of Periconceptional Medicine. External appointments include Past Chairman of the ESHRE Special Interest Group on Reproductive Endocrinology, Founding Board Member of the Dutch Society of Reproductive Medicine, and Advisor to the University of Valencia Medical School, Spain. This year he was also appointed Visiting Professor to Adelaide University, Australia.

Category of “UTERINE RECEPTIVITY”:

Project: Endometrial gene expression profile associated with recurrent implantation failure.

Despite major advances in IVF treatment and embryo culture and selection techniques, the majority of IVF cycles do not result in pregnancy. The role of the endometrium as a determinant of successful implantation is therefore being increasingly recognized. However, to date no robust diagnostic test for endometrial receptivity has been developed, and no drug intervention has been shown to improve receptivity. Understanding the genomic footprint of the highly refractory human endometrium would provide a major step forward. Our group has recently identified a profile of 70 genes which are highly dysregulated in women with who fail to achieve implantation despite the transfer of multiple high quality embryos after IVF. However, before this information can be developed into a diagnostic test of endometrial receptivity, or indeed provide reliable pointers for new clinical interventions, the profile needs to be tested in a separate population.

The GFI Grant has made it possible for us to perform this validation study.

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