Embriology
A unique part of the Jefferson-RMA Fellowship
The Jefferson-RMA Fellowship program is unique in the amount of time and hands-on experience provided to fellows in the ART embryology laboratory.
Towards the end of your first year and the beginning of your second you will have a total of five months dedicated to embryology under the direction of Dr. Marie Werner and the Embryology Team. During the embryology rotation, you will learn all of the laboratory techniques and begin formulating a major research project. The hours for the embryology laboratory rotation will be from 6:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. and the fellows will be involved in every aspect of the embryology laboratory, getting hands-on experience with actual ART cases every day.
During your second year you will learn advanced laboratory techniques and get hands-on case experience in each skill set. The experience will enable you to gain a true understanding of the techniques and procedures performed in the embryology laboratory and allow you to work effectively with embryology teams in the future. It will also provide the background knowledge and technical skill sets which will empower more advanced basic and translational research projects.
This 6 month elective experience allows fellows to gain practical experience in the embryology lab and can be applied towards a degree in embryology, andrology, and general laboratory knowledge. Four of our graduating fellows have completed this elective and pursued additional training that has allowed them to sit for and pass the Technical Supervisor and High Complexity Clinical Laboratory Director exams administered by the American Board of Bioanalysis. Two of our graduates even serve as representatives to the writer’s workshop to develop new testing materials.