Our Research

Our strengths in research have long set the Family Fertility Center apart, enabling us to offer leading-edge fertility treatments that ensure the highest probability of conception.

Fertility is a complex issue, leaving an estimated one in eight couples in the U.S. in search of answers. As Baylor College of Medicine faculty members, our fertility experts are conducting research that is crucial to gaining new insights into women’s and men’s reproductive health.

As both researchers and physicians, they are equally skilled at translating those scientific discoveries into new treatments, providing the answers, hope and help patients are looking for.

At the Forefront of Reproductive Medicine

From the beginning, Texas Children’s Hospital was committed to creating one of the top fertility centers in the nation, investing in clinical and research facilities that would advance the understanding and treatment of infertility for our patients, and for families everywhere.

Built from the ground up with input from prominent researchers across the United States, including Harvard, the University of Michigan, and the University of Washington, our unique facility includes cutting-edge instrumentation in our clinical IVF lab that is reproduced in two research labs nested within our larger IVF facility – making us one of the few facilities in the nation capable of advanced IVF research. Already, our data is translating into improved patient care and outcomes.

Our strengths in research also include: 

• Two internationally recognized PhDs coordinating our IVF and research labs
• NIH grant funding awarded to our director of IVF research, reflecting the quality of our research
• Cross collaboration with other departments throughout Baylor College of Medicine, enhancing our knowledge and accelerating discoveries
• Additional research conducted by our trainees in reproductive medicine, multiplying our capabilities and earning awards and recognition at national meetings

Diverse Faculty Research Interests

Richard Cochran, PhD

• Oocyte cryopreservation
• Media supplementation
• Biomarkers for embryonic development
• Time lapse incubation

William Gibbons, MD

• Utilization of time-lapse microscopy [Embryoscope] and embryo growth to predict Live Births from IVF.
• Uterine fibroid dependence on Ovarian Hormones
• The prevention of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome with gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonists
• Congenital Uterine Malformation by Experts [CUME]: Criteria for diagnosis of Uterine Malformations/Septate Uterus
• Nature versus Science, transferring embryos and adverse outcomes
• Evaluation of embryo genetic content to improve pregnancy outcome
• Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and egg competence
• Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and insulin resistance
• Risk of miscarriage after embryo transfer of ‘genetically normal’ embryos
• Egg mitochondrial structure in PCOS
• Therapy of Uterine Fibroids

Khalied Kaskar, MS

• Biomarkers in culture media to predict embryo health and implantation potential
• Optimizing culture conditions to improve embryo quality
• Effects of oxidative stress on sperm and embryos

Amy Schutt, MD

• PCOS
• Effects of nutrition and metabolic health on oocyte and embryonic quality
• Infertility and mental health 
• Effects of IVF on brain structure and function 
• Gynecologic biorepository (tissue bank to study issues related to fertility and gynecology)

Blesson C. Selvanesan, MSc, MPhil, PhD

• Reproductive endocrinology
• Developmental origin of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
• Developmental origin of Type 2 Diabetes
• Mitochondria and metabolism
• Metabolic diseases and early development

Terri Woodard, MD

• Medical decision making about fertility preservation
• Ovarian tissue cryopreservation
• Oncofertility reproductive and oncologic outcomes 

Paul Zarutskie, MD

• Oocyte maturation
• Carbohydrate metabolic disorders
• Embryo genetics

Learn more about our publications here