Dr Nicola Dean has been working in assisted reproduction for more than 34 years and has a vast experience in both clinical work and research, starting her career in 1988 and getting the chance to train under the direction of Professor Robert Edwards, the scientific father of the first baby conceived by in-vitro fertilization (IVF). The latter trusted her with the management of his laboratory in London, England, for several years.During these years, she also contributed to the success of IVF laboratories in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and Italy.
She moved to Canada after being recruited by McGill University in 1996 to build and lead the laboratories at the MUHC Reproductive Center. During her years at the university, she completed a doctorate on the transmission and distribution model of genetic diseases in mammals. Following her Ph.D., Dr. Dean carried out both clinical and research work to improve techniques and assisted reproduction outcomes at the MUHC Reproductive Center and thereafter at Clinique Ovo.
When the Quebec assisted program began in 2011, Dr. Dean agreed to participate in the implementation of the new Assisted Reproduction Clinic at the CHUM and then assumed the leadership of the new laboratories and created a laboratory dedicated to assisted procreation for couples affected by HIV, hepatitis B or hepatitis C. After the closure of the clinic in 2016, she worked with the CHUM Research Center on a study looking at the causes of aneuploidy in human oocytes.
Since 2018, Dr. Dean is very pleased to be a member of Procrea Fertility team as Director of Embryology and Andrology. She participates at both a clinical and management level to assist in the continuous improvement of treatment in order to give all of our clients the best chance of success.
Dr. Dean’s special interest include measuring and improving the quality of the embryo, preimplantation genetic diagnosis and the genetic components of infertility, the optimization of techniques for serodiscordant couples and cryobiology. She has been involved in the publication of more than 50 scientific articles, is a reviewer for international scientific journals, has written books chapters, has presented at several international meeting and taught to university students. She is also a member of the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society (CFAS)