Genetics
Starting years:
The department of genetics at Krishna IVF Clinic was started in the year 2005. Krishna IVF Clinic is the first infertility centre with integrated genetics department in the early 2005 in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The genetics department was started with traditional cytogenetics, study of genetic disorders at chromosomal level known as karyotyping. In the early days karyotyping was done in the blood samples later extended to foetal samples amniotic fluid and CVS. After few years with the vision and persuasive skill of the team led to the birth of molecular genetics.
Team:
In the initial days the department was started with a team consisting of three persons Dr. G. A. Rama Raju, Dr. K. Madan and T. Sivanarayana. Dr Rama Raju is the clinical expert in the field of reproductive medicine, Dr Madan is a pathologist and Sivanarayana is post graduate in human genetics. They made major developments in prenatal diagnosis, genetic counselling and management of patients with previous history of genetic disorders. Later it was extended with other geneticists Ravi Krishna, KPG Shankar and Dr. Aruna.
PGT consortium:
Krishna IVF Clinic is first clinic participated in the annual data collection and is registered as a full member of the ESHRE (European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology) PGD Consortium for the year 2008, and PGD data published on ESHRE PGT consortium data collection XVI-XVIII: Cycles from 2013 to 2015, Human Reproduction open, PP. 1-11, 2020. doi: 10.1093/hropen/hoaa043.
Research Centre:
Krishna IVF Clinic is recognized as an extramural research centre for pursuing Ph.D program from Andhra University in year 2008 and GITAM University in the year 2016 on the recommendations of the board of research studies from the respective university members. This program helps postgraduate students to pursue their Ph.D program at Krishna IVF Clinic and doctorate will be awarded by the respective universities. Till date three members have completed their Ph.D program from department of genetics and two members are pursuing their Ph.D from clinical department.
- First Ph.D : T. Sivanarayana pursued his Ph.D on DNA Fragmentation of human spermatozoa: Effects on sperm morphokinematic and embryological parameters in assisted reproductive program.
- Second Ph.D: Ch. Ravi Krishna pursued his Ph.D titled, A study on influence of AFC, AMH and FSHR gene polymorphisms on ovarian response and clinical pregnancy outcome in patients undergoing controlled ovarian stimulation using r-FSH in combination with LH
- Third Ph.D: Dr. G. A. Rama Raju pursued his Ph.D titled, A study on the development of deep learning techniques and the use of hormonal and genetic approaches for achieving better success rates in long GnRH agonist treated IVF cycles.
Research Publications:
Krishna IVF is involved in research activities along with regular clinical practice. As a part of research activity, the team has published few papers in the field of male and female reproductive genetics.
Male infertility: Krishna IVF has studied extensively on the role of Sperm morphology, Sperm DNA fragmentation and male diabetic conditions and their outcome of the ART cycles.
Female infertility: One of the outstanding works performed by Krishna IVF Clinic is pharmacogenomic approach of LH supplementation in COS protocols based on polymorphic variants of LH receptor. The foundation for the project was laid in the early 2010 with the visionary purchase of 3500 genetic analyser from Thermofisher scientific which is based on sanger sequencing principle. With the help sanger sequencing, we performed retrospective and prospective study on the role of genetic polymorphisms in controlled ovarian stimulation protocols. To our knowledge this is the first study at the time of publication to define the pharmacogenetic approach of LHCGR polymorphisms on LH supplementation.
Services:
The genetics laboratory contributes to the advancement of genetic testing with a goal of improving patient care. Krishna IVF provides genetic diagnostic services both in the field of cytogenetics and molecular genetics. In cytogenetics we offer karyotyping on all type of samples including peripheral blood, amniotic fluid, CVS. In molecular genetics we provide testing of viral and bacterial infections that are sexually transmitted and related to infertility using real-time PCR, we provide sequencing for single gene mutations. We provide full gene sequencing for HBB, FSHR, LHCGR, CFTR, few deafness related genes (GJB2, GJB3, GJB6) and AURKC. Hot spot variants for MTHFR and Annexin A5.