New Place, Familiar Face
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Pacific Fertility Center is pleased to announce the arrival (or return, if you will) of Mariluz Branch, Laboratory Supervisor to Pacific Fertility Center’s IVF Laboratory. Mariluz brings over a decade of laboratory experience dating back to the early 1990s when she was an embryologist at the San Francisco Center for Reproductive Medicine (SFCRM), now a part of Pacific Fertility Center. She was there during the infant stages of SFCRM, working with Pacific Fertility Center’s Drs. Herbert and Chenette.
At SFCRM, Mariluz played an instrumental role in developing their IVF lab, and, after 11 years, she traveled abroad for several years, moving to London where she held a similar position at an IVF lab. Although there were differences in the processes of working at an IVF laboratory in the UK, she never lost her passion for embryology, and, after moving back to the states earlier this year, she was reunited with many of her former SFCRM colleagues at Pacific Fertility Center. The motivation to work at Pacific Fertility Center was to work in an environment that had good pregnancy rates, trustworthy staff, and high professional standards. Since being at PFC, she has been very impressed with the laboratory’s knowledge, meticulousness, and commitment to do what’s best for the patient.
“Teamwork is one of our team’s biggest strengths,” said Mariluz. “For example, we have a witnessing system during every critical stage in the laboratory. This allows us to run as safe and secure a lab as possible. We also have a large enough staff to prevent us from being overloaded, which helps eliminate any confusion.”
Mariluz has training in preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) and preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) as well as extensive experience with ICSI, cryopreservation and embryo handling. She will bring this and other expertise to her role, which will consist of conducting clinical research studies with the aim of increasing embryo quality and pregnancy rates, and will eventually be overseeing the PGD program. She is also working on developing oocyte (egg) freezing at PFC through a technique called vitrification (versus the more traditional slow freezing method). Mariluz is enthusiastic about the significant and ongoing advancements in assisted reproductive technology (ART) and is pleased to play a role in helping Pacific Fertility Center’s patients realize their dream of building a healthy family.
