School for IVF laboratory workers opens at Sheba

Sheba Medical Center is in the process of setting up the first school in Israel, and one of the few in the world, dedicated to the study of clinical embryology.  

Clinical embryologists are essential to the work done in IVF labs, even though patients rarely meet them. The beating heart of the IVF lab, they work behind the scenes to make the in vitro fertilization process possible - from carefully handling the retrieved egg to fertilizing and nurturing the embryo in the lab, and finally, working with the treating doctor to transfer the embryo back into the uterus.

"There is a critical shortage of embryologists nationwide, creating a bottleneck that limits the number of IVF treatments available," says Dr. Adva Aizer, head of the IVF lab at Sheba Medical Center and a globally recognized expert in the field. As co-founder of a new training program, Dr. Aizer emphasizes, "This school was established to tackle the national shortage of skilled embryologists"

The school will be managed by the Sheba Teaching Authority and the Women’s Division, led by Prof. Gadi Segal, Vered Robinson, Michal Yonish, Prof. Raoul Orvieto, and Dr. Adva Aizer.
 

Deep practical experience

Embryologists are traditionally trained on the job within laboratory settings, a process that typically takes around three years. However, the new school, set to welcome its first cohort in April 2025, aims to streamline this training with a strong emphasis on hands-on practical experience, significantly reducing the time required to become proficient.

At Sheba, most of the hands-on experience students gain comes from working with mouse and hamster eggs. Dr. Aizer explains, "One reason for the long training period in labs has been that trainees practice on human eggs, which are a rare resource and take a lot of time to work with. But after attending a course abroad that used mouse eggs, I saw how similar they are to the real thing. There’s really no reason not to use them for learning."

After completing their studies, the students will move on to training in labs where they'll work with human biological material. However, the hands-on experience they've already gained during the program will help them complete this next step quickly and confidently.

The program is for individuals with a second degree in scientific fields and will be taught by top IVF experts in Israel. It includes seven courses covering topics like sperm treatment, freezing and thawing techniques, preimplantation genetic diagnosis, and more.