Dawn A. Kelk PhD, HCLD

Dawn A. Kelk, PhD, HCLD is Director of the IVF Laboratory at Yale Fertility Center and Associate Research Scientist at the Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Kelk’s clinical expertise includes trophectoderm biopsy and vitrification of blastocysts and oocytes. Her work has demonstrated higher pregnancy rates with frozen (vitrified) blastocysts as compared to fresh embryo transfer. At the American Society of Reproductive Medicine Meeting in 2013, Dr Kelk was awarded the Society for Reproductive Biologists and Technologists Clinical Science Award for her abstract “Day 2 Cell Number Correlates with Blastocyst Aneuploidy Rates Following Comprehensive 24-Chromosome Screening (CCS)”.

Dr. Kelk’s primary clinical interest is in optimizing laboratory conditions, vitrification techniques and 24-chromosome testing for aneuploidy to increase confidence and utilization of elective single embryo transfer (eSET) leading to healthier IVF birth outcomes. Her research interests include oocyte and ovarian tissue freezing, fertility preservation, nuclear and cytoplasmic involvement in preimplantation development and fresh versus frozen IVF birth outcomes.

Dr. Kelk obtained a BSc in Molecular Biology and Genetics followed by MSc and PhD in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Guelph, Canada. She is board certified as a High Complexity Laboratory Director. Dr. Kelk is an active member of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), Society of Reproductive Biologists and Technologists (SRBT) and American Board of Bioanalysts (ABB).