Merck Serono To Award Grant To Innovative Research Projects In Fertility

Merck Serono, a division of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, today announces the recipients of its first Grant for Fertility Innovation. The company has awarded around 1 million Euros to five innovative research projects with the same common goal: to improve the chances for couples to conceive a baby. The Grant for Fertility Innovation program was developed by the company to support the advancement of medical science in the field of fertility.

“This initiative represents an unprecedented commitment from Merck Serono to encourage innovative thinking among the scientific community in the fertility area”, said Fereydoun Firouz, Head of the Global Business Unit Fertility and Metabolic Endocrinology at Merck Serono. “Today, we are proud to award the first grants to five breakthrough projects which have demonstrated a potential to develop into novel applications for clinicians to improve patients outcomes.

We will continue to stimulate innovation in the fertility field by offering new grants for next year.” A total of 212 entries were received from scientists from 33 countries worldwide. Projects were selected by a scientific committee composed of fertility experts. Each entry was blinded and evaluated according to five criteria: support to increase the chances to conceive a baby, innovation, scientific rationale, feasibility and practical utility.

The awardees were announced at a ceremony held at the 26th annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE), in the presence of Professor André Van Steirteghem, a recognized pioneer in fertility treatment, Professor Emeritus of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB; Brussels Free University), Honorary Consultant of the Centre for Reproductive Medicine of the Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel, and Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed journal Human Reproduction. Grants were awarded to:

· Dr. Nathalie Ledee, Professor of Assisted reproduction at the University of Paris, France: Non-invasive approaches on oocyte competence to predict pregnancy.

· Dr. Dominique Royere, Professor of Reproductive Medicine and Biology, University of Tours, France: Cumulus cells biomarkers detection by reverse phase protein microarray.

· Dr. Carlos Simon, Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of Valencia, Spain: New Non-Invasive Diagnostic Method of Human Endometrial Receptivity.

· Dr. Carl Spiessens, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Catholic University of Leuven and Director of the Laboratory of the Leuven University Fertility Center, Belgium: Selecting the embryo with the highest implantation potential using novel non-invasive methods.

· Dr. Dagan Wells, BRC Scientific Leadership Fellow in Reproductive Genetics at the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, University of Oxford: Rapid inexpensive DNA fragmentation analysis of sperm & cumulus cells.

Contact
Merck KGaA Frankfurterstrasse 250 64293 Darmstadt Germany Tel.: +49 6151 72-0 Fax: +49 6151 72 2000 www.merckserono.com

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