Santiago Munné
The Modern Laboratory · People
The Modern Laboratory
Santiago Munné
He found a way to count chromosomes inside a single embryo cell, and showed how often early embryos carry the wrong number.
Santiago Munné earned his doctorate in human genetics at the University of Pittsburgh. His first papers there studied the chromosomes of sperm. In 1991 he joined Jacques Cohen's team at Cornell University Medical College in New York.
Colours for chromosomes. At Cornell, Munné adapted fluorescence in situ hybridisation, a method that makes chosen chromosomes glow in different colours. In 1993 the team used it to check five chromosomes at once in single cells from human embryos: X, Y, 13, 18 and 21. The test worked in 93 per cent of 157 cells from 30 embryos.
What the counts revealed. The work showed that many early embryos carry the wrong number of chromosomes. In 1995, after studying 524 embryos, Munné's group reported that these errors were linked to slower growth, poorer appearance and the mother's age. In 1998 his team reported the first pregnancies after testing embryos for chromosome rearrangements carried by the mother.
Munné later directed the embryo genetics laboratory at the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science in Livingston, New Jersey. He went on to help found laboratories devoted to embryo testing. He led the large trial of aneuploidy testing published in 2019 that Room 5 describes. In 2023 he was part of the team that reported the first babies conceived after sperm injection carried out by an automated system.
He has written more than 270 scientific papers. In 2024 he shared the Robert G. Edwards prize paper award for the automated sperm injection work.
Also see: Jacques Cohen, Robert Edwards
About the sources
- ROI-NJ. Reproductive genetics pioneer Munné appointed chief scientific officer, 20 February 2026 (doctorate, publication count, 2024 Robert G. Edwards prize paper award).
- Costa-Borges N, Munné S, Albó E, et al. First babies conceived with automated intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Reproductive BioMedicine Online 2023;47(3):103237. PMID 37400320.
- Munné S, Kaplan B, Frattarelli JL, et al. Preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy versus morphology as selection criteria for single frozen-thawed embryo transfer in good-prognosis patients: a multicenter randomized clinical trial. Fertility and Sterility 2019;112(6):1071–1079.
- Consumer Eroski. Interview: Santiago Munné, 14 July 2009 (Pittsburgh doctorate, joined Cohen's team at Cornell in 1991, director of the PGD laboratory in Livingston, New Jersey).
- Munné S, Scott R, Sable D, Cohen J. First pregnancies after preconception diagnosis of translocations of maternal origin. Fertility and Sterility 1998;69(4):675–681. PMID 9548157.
- Munné S, Alikani M, Tomkin G, Grifo J, Cohen J. Embryo morphology, developmental rates, and maternal age are correlated with chromosome abnormalities. Fertility and Sterility 1995;64(2):382–391. PMID 7615118.
- Munné S, Lee A, Rosenwaks Z, Grifo J, Cohen J. Diagnosis of major chromosome aneuploidies in human preimplantation embryos. Human Reproduction 1993;8(12):2185–2191. PMID 8150922.
- Munne S, Estop A. The effect of in-vitro ageing on mouse sperm chromosomes. Human Reproduction 1991;6(5):703–708 (West Penn Hospital, Pittsburgh). PMID 1939553.
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Compiled with AI-assisted research and checked against the original sources. Not yet peer-reviewed. Corrections are warmly welcomed.
