Gianpiero D. Palermo
The Modern Laboratory · People
The Modern Laboratory
Gianpiero D. Palermo
The young doctor in Brussels who saw what an accident meant, and turned it into a method.
From Italy to Brussels. Gianpiero Palermo went to school in Francavilla Fontana in southern Italy and studied medicine at the University of Bari. He then joined the Centre for Reproductive Medicine of the Free University of Brussels, where he earned a master’s degree in 1990.
The accident. The Brussels team was injecting single sperm just beneath the egg’s outer shell, a method called SUZI. As Palermo and colleagues later wrote, during one such injection the egg’s membrane was accidentally breached and the sperm went straight into the egg. Such eggs could fertilise normally. He was first author of the July 1992 Lancet report: 47 eggs injected, 31 fertilised, and four pregnancies. Two boys and a pair of twins, a boy and a girl, were born.
New York. Since 1993 he has directed assisted fertilisation and andrology at the Center for Reproductive Medicine of Weill Cornell Medicine in New York. He also trained there in obstetrics, gynaecology and reproductive endocrinology, and in 2005 he completed a PhD at Monash University in Australia. He is professor of embryology in obstetrics and gynaecology and holds the Blavatnik Family Professorship of Reproductive Medicine.
Following the children. His group has studied why fertilisation sometimes fails, the genetics of male infertility, and the health of children born after ICSI. In 2009 he shared the Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award in Biotechnology and Medicine with Alan Handyside and Ann Kiessling. In 2018 the American Society for Reproductive Medicine honoured him, on the 40th anniversary of IVF, for reporting the first successful ICSI.
Also see: André Van Steirteghem, Paul Devroey, Hubert Joris, Ryuzo Yanagimachi, Alan Handyside
About the sources
- Weill Cornell Medicine. Gianpiero Palermo, M.D. (weillcornell.org): Professor of Embryology in Obstetrics and Gynecology; Blavatnik Family Professor of Reproductive Medicine; MD University of Bari; MS Free University of Brussels 1990; PhD Monash University 2005; director of Assisted Fertilization and Andrology since 1993; 40th Anniversary of IVF Award (2018).
- The Ronald O. Perelman and Claudia Cohen Center for Reproductive Medicine, physician profile (ivf.org): school in Francavilla Fontana; residency and fellowship at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell.
- Palermo GD, O’Neill CL, Chow S, Cheung S, Parrella A, Pereira N. Intracytoplasmic sperm injection: state of the art in humans. Reproduction 2017;154(6):F93–F110. PubMed 29158352: the oolemma “was accidentally breached” during subzonal injection.
- Brandeis University. Pioneers in assisted human reproduction will receive Gabbay Award Nov. 16 (November 2009): 12th Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award shared by Alan H. Handyside, Gianpiero D. Palermo and Ann A. Kiessling; research themes.
- Palermo G, Joris H, Derde MP, Camus M, Devroey P, Van Steirteghem A. Sperm characteristics and outcome of human assisted fertilization by subzonal insemination and intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Fertility and Sterility 1993;59(4):826–835. PubMed 8458504.
- Palermo G, Joris H, Devroey P, Van Steirteghem AC. Pregnancies after intracytoplasmic injection of single spermatozoon into an oocyte. Lancet 1992;340(8810):17–18. PubMed 1351601. Abstract: 47 metaphase-II oocytes injected, 31 fertilised, four pregnancies; two boys from singleton pregnancies and a boy and a girl from the twin pregnancy.
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Compiled with AI-assisted research and checked against the original sources. Not yet peer-reviewed. Corrections are warmly welcomed.
