Hanna Balakier, IVF Lab Director

Dr. Balakier is an expert in mammalian embryology. She has extensive experience in human Assisted Reproductive Technology. She received her Ph. D. from the University of Warsaw, Poland and completed her postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco, Medical School and the University of Toronto, Zoology Department.

Since 1988, Dr. Balakier has been involved in establishing and directing successful IVF laboratories in several infertility clinics in Toronto (TGH, START clinic and currently CReATe). Her expertise also includes University lecturing, teaching students and training embryologists in all current IVF techniques, specializing in micromanipulations.

She is internationally recognized for her research on animals and humans in the area of these cell cycle of maturing eggs (oocytes), the mechanisms of fertilization, differentiation of cell lineages in early preimplantation embryos and embryonic cell cryopreservation.

Her present interests centres on understanding the maternal and paternal contributions to early embryo develpment, in vitro maturation of human eggs and ovarian cryopreservation. She is recipient of many awards including the recent LIFE AWARD 2002, a national recognition for excellence. She is an active member of the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society and the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology.