Abstract
Since the birth of baby Louise Brown in 1978, human IVF-ET has evolved to become standard medical practice for the treatment of many types of human infertility. As a correlate to the impressive, if not explosive, growth in the application of IVF-ET procedures in human medicine (some 150 active clinics presently accepting patients in the United States alone), a dearth of trained, experienced mammalian embryologists has occurred. This outcome has both positive and negative connotations. On the plus side of the ledger, those of us who have experience in mammalian embryology, and human IVF specifically, find ourselves in the enviable position of being actively recruited and supported by clinical departments. While the provision of a clinical service by research scientists may at first glance appear to detract from research efforts, the advantages in associating with clinical colleagues and infertility patients and the availability of clinical material (sperm, zonae pellucidae, granulosa cells, follicular fluid, etc.), to my mind, far outweighs the sacrifice. On the negative side of the ledger, the rapid development and application of IVF-ET technology has forced many programs to employ cell biologists or embryologists with limited credentials and/or experience.
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© 1988 Plenum Press, New York
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Wolf, D.P. (1988). Human IVF-ET: State of the Art 1987. In: Wolf, D.P., Bavister, B.D., Gerrity, M., Kopf, G.S. (eds) In Vitro Fertilization and Embryo Transfer. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1005-1_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1005-1_1
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