Page 20 - FSANZ AUTUMN -2023

Young researchers shine at a diverse
Student and early career presentations were a centrepiece of the SIRT 2023 two-day meeting in Hobart on 25 and 26 February.
The program showcased emerging talent with presentations by representatives of City Fertility Centre, Fertility North, Genea, No. 1 Fertility, the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute and students fromMonash University and the University of Queensland.
Local organising committee representative and FSANZ Vice-President, Dr Petra Wale, said it was an excellent opportunity for the young presenters to outline their work in a highly supportive environment.
Topics included:
• a sibling oocyte study of oil overlay type and its effect on blastocyst utilisation rate;
• a retrospective paired cycle study on whether calcium ionophore supplementation at ICSI improves cycle outcomes for patients with a history of low fertilisation:
• a retrospective analysis on the effect of microfluidic sperm sorting on day 5 and 6 embryo utilisation during IVF treatment;
• the Revolving Door and what can it teach us?;
• single step versus the sequential culture system;
• interpreting artificial intelligence performance for prediction of clinical pregnancy by data visualisation;
Petra Wale
deep learning classification integrating embryo images with associated clinical information from IVF treatments; and
• whether a circuitous nuclear centring process risks embryonic divisions becoming asymmetric in early mouse embryos.
The SIRT meeting was the first two-day dedicated scientific event held in face-to-face format since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic with almost 130 registrants from across Australia and New Zealand.
It featured a busy and diverse program beginning with compelling presentations on emergency management in an IVF setting.
A special invitee was Daniel Manser, Fire Commander for the Aviation Rescue Fire Fighting Service, who spoke about leading in a crisis.
Natalie Hesketh, Fertility Laboratories Group Manager for Genea, outlined lessons learned from an actual emergency reflecting on a serious fire and smoke damage incident, while Alexander Gwynn, Laboratory and Quality Manager for Westmead Fertility Centre, addressed compliance in a crisis.
Natalie emphasised that disaster management needed a multi-pronged approach including:
• risk mitigation by putting things in place to avoid disasters happening in the first place such as learning from near misses, observing safe working practices, maintenance of critical equipment etc;
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The Hobart meeting attracted almost 130 delegates from across Australia and New Zealand
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