2025 ASRM Research Institute Grant Awardees

2025 ASRM Pilot & Exploratory Research Grant

Pasquale Patrizio, MD, MBE, HCLD, FACOG (University of Miami)

Title: ““Ex vivo” perfusion of whole human ovaries in a bioreactor: a novel method to study ovarian physiology folliculogenesis and oocytes maturity.”

Pasquale Patrizio, MD, MBE, HCLD, FACOG, an internationally renowned specialist in female and male reproductive medicine, is joining the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine as professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences and chief of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. Dr. Patrizio’s discoveries have changed how reproductive medicine and in vitro fertilization (IVF) are practiced worldwide. He arrived at the University of Miami in 2021 as the Divisional Chief and Center of Reproductive Endocrinology Director after spending 17 years at Yale University, directing the fertility center and IVF program at Yale School of Medicine.

Dr. Patrizio, who holds a master’s degree in bioethics (MBE), is known for his collaborative approach to patient care and research. He plans to develop a Center for Reproductive Health with a service for transgender individuals, similar to his highly successful program at Yale. He also expects to create a fellowship program with Dr. Paidas to train future generations of reproductive medicine specialists, inviting the audience to be part of this journey.

In his 25-year career, Dr. Patrizio has produced research accomplishments of extraordinary importance and innovation spanning basic and clinical reproductive medicine. For instance, he discovered that the congenital absence of the vas deferens in men is a mild form of cystic fibrosis. This finding is significant as it led to a better understanding of male infertility and paved the way for genetic assessments as part of the clinical assessments for infertile men. He also found that some cases of male infertility are due to deletions on the Y-chromosome, a discovery that has implications for genetic counseling and assisted reproductive technologies.

Dr. Patrizio also co-pioneered the microsurgical epididymal sperm aspiration (MESA) technique to improve male fertility and developed whole ovary cryopreservation via multi-thermal gradient for fertility preservation in women. He also studied new methods for bio-banking gametes, reproductive tissue, and stem cells. In addition, Dr. Patrizio was co-author of the guidelines for fertility preservation in cancer on behalf of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

Dr. Patrizio's groundbreaking accomplishments have earned him global recognition as a clinical translational scientist. His work has been celebrated with numerous honors and awards, including the induction as a life fellow member of the International Academy of Human Reproduction, a 36-members-only international group of experts and teachers of reproductive medicine. His achievements are truly impressive and inspiring.

Dr. Patrizio was co-founder and former president of the International Society for Fertility Preservation (ISFP) and immediate past chair of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine’s Fertility Preservation Group. He has published a leading assisted reproductive technologies (ART) textbook, five additional books, and 211 peer-reviewed original manuscripts. He serves as an associate editor of Reproductive BioMedicine online and the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics.

Dr. Patrizio earned his medical degree, which was followed by additional training in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Napoli in Italy and a residency in andrology at the University of Pisa. He moved to the United States for a second residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California Irvine, where he completed a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology and infertility. Dr. Patrizio was then appointed director of the male infertility program at the University of Pennsylvania, where he established a clinical and research program in male infertility.

2025 Maya's Wings Foundation Research Award

Nickie Andescavage, MD (Children's Research Institute)

Title: “Advanced Imaging and Epigenetic Insights into Placental Development in Assisted Reproductive Technologies-Conceived Pregnancies”

Nickie Andescavage, MD, is the Associate Chief of Medical and Academic Affairs of the Developing Brain Institute (DBI) at Children’s National, and oversees DBI’s clinical and research programs, providing oversight of the medical and clinical care teams of DBI, supporting continuity of care across the prenatal-neonatal continuum, and overseeing the Maternal and Infant Clinical Trials Unit. She also serves as the clinical director, leads our community engagement efforts with obstetricians and maternal-fetal medicine specialists, and expanded our clinical research enterprise to a growing number of community NICUs. Dr. Andescavage also is an attending physician in Children’s Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine and a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology at the George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences.

Dr. Andescavage’s background in neonatology began with early academic interests in the mechanisms of acquired brain injury in premature infants. A subsequent fellowship in fetal medicine provided her additional expertise in fetal brain and placental development, including training in advanced imaging techniques. These sophisticated techniques allow for more rigorous study of the development and metabolism of the placenta and fetal brain and the more precise detection of injury, as well as the role of intrauterine exposures on offspring neurodevelopment.

2025 ASRM In-Training Surgical Research Award

Margaret A Rush, MD (University of Pennsylvania)

Title: “Hysteroscopy for diagnosis and treatment of pregnancy of unknown location”

Margaret A. Rush, MD is a current second year fellow in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the University of Pennsylvania. She completed medical school at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, and her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a current member of the SRS Surgical Scholars Track and has a special interest in reproductive surgery. 

2025 KY Cha Awardee

(Supported by an endowment from the Asia-Pacific Biomedical Research Foundation)

Katie Ayers (Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Australia)

Title: “Developing a scalable stem cell model to analyze genes and regulatory regions involved in fetal gonadal development and difference of sex development.”

Associate Professor Katie Ayers is a group leader at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and Associate Professor in Paediatrics at the University of Melbourne. Her research explores the genetic and molecular mechanisms of human reproductive development and Differences of Sex Development (DSD). She is an editorial board member for several journals including Biology of Reproduction and Sexual Development. Katie’s research has spanned multiple animal models, human genetics and stem cell techniques and has been published in leading journals including Genome Biology, Nature Communications, and Developmental Cell. Notably, she received the 2014 Alan Wilton Award from the Genetics Society of Australasia for characterizing the chicken W sex chromosome and in 2016 co-authored a study in Genome Biology where creation of a novel gene panel improved diagnosis rates from 13% to 40% for individuals with DSD. Recently, she has been developing stem cell models of human gonadal development for functional genomics, work aimed at improving genetic diagnostics and patient care. 

2025 RPLA Research Awardee

(Supported by the Recurrent Pregnancy Loss Association)

Monica Mainigi, MD (University of Pennsylvania)

Title: "The Role of Uterine Macrophages in Early Placentation and Recurrent Pregnancy Loss”

Dr. Mainigi is an Associate Professor in the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the University of Pennsylvania. Her laboratory focuses on examining the interactions between per-implantation exposures and early placentation utilizing animal models, in vitro culture systems, and human tissues. Specifically, using Assisted Reproductive Technologies as a model, she has examined how specific interventions utilized during ART can lead to changes in placentation and adverse outcomes. Studying early implantation in humans is challenging. Therefore, to address these challenges, her laboratory has partnered with bioengineers in the laboratory of Dr. Dan Huh to utilize their organ-on-a-chip technology to model early placentation. Using this 'implantation-on-a-chip' device and primary human cells, they have found that uterine immune cells play a critical role in regulating early trophoblast invasion and spiral artery remodeling and that patients at risk for abnormal placentation may have changes in these immune cell populations.  They are currently developing new protocols to use this device to examine how maternal cells may influence trophoblast differentiation using iPS derived trophoblasts. These studies will aid us understanding how the preexisting maternal environment, and in particular uterine macrophages, can affect early implantation and play a role in recurrent pregnancy loss.