After her medical degree at the VUB, Karen Sermon started her scientific career first as a master, then as a PhD student with Inge Liebaers and André Van Steirteghem. The topic of her PhD was the development of a preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for Tay-Sachs disease. In the years following her PhD degree, she was instrumental in developing PGD for monogenic diseases at the Centres for Medical Genetics and Reproductive Medicine, leading to nearly 60 highly cited papers on the subject. The PGD clinic today at the UZ Brussel is one of the largest in the world. Karen Sermon has also been very active in the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (https://www.eshre.eu), as a coordinator for the special interest groups “reproduction and genetics”, and later “stem cells”. She was also one of the founders of the ESHRE PGD Consortium (https://www.eshre.eu/Data-collection-and-research/Consortia/PGD-Consortium.aspx) which still today is an important source of information on the daily practice of PGD, and an influential voice in policy making at different levels. Currently, she is a member of the Executive Committee of ESHRE (https://www.eshre.eu/Home/Committees/Executive-Committee.aspx)
Currently, Karen Sermon has research projects in the field of human pluripotent stem cells and in reproductive genetics, more precisely in the origin of chromosomal abnormalities in human embryos.
PhDs
Ongoing
NUŠA KRIVEC. Since May 2019. PhD project: Mechanisms regulating exit from
Graduated
LISE BARBE. Public defence 2017. PhD dissertation: Identification of molecular key drivers in disease development in myotpnic dystrophy type I
VEERLE GOOSSENS. Public defence 2015. PhD dissertation: Preimplantation genetic diagnosis. From bench to data collection. Co-promotor with Joep Geraedts en Sjoerd Repping
AFRODITI MERTZANIDOU. Public defence 2015. PhD dissertation: Chromosomal abnormalities in human preimplantation development. Co-promotor with Claudia Spits
KURT JACOBS. Public defence 2015. PhD dissertation: Genomic integrity of human embryonic stem cells: Low grade mosaicism and the effect of culture density. Co-promotor with Claudia Spits
LINDSEY VAN HAUTE. Public defence 2013. PhD dissertation: Human embryonic stem cells as a paradigm for disease modelling in respiration. Co-promotor Martine De Rycke
CHEN BING. Public defence 2011. PhD dissertation: Extracellular factors regulate pancreatic fate of human embryonic stem cells. Co-promotor with Luc Bouwens
ILEANA MATEIZEL. Public defence 2010. PhD dissertation: Human embryonic stem cells: challenges and novel approaches. Co-promotors Inge Liebaers and André Van Steirteghem
URIELLE ULLMANN. Public defence 2009. PhD dissertation: Human embryonic stem cell derivation and optimization of cultures: characterisation of epithelial-mesenchymal transition in feeder free cultures. Co-promotor with Inge Liebaers and Martine De Rycke
NELE DE TEMMERMANN. Public defence 2009. PhD dissertation: DM1 repeat instability in human gametes, embryos and embryonic stem cells. Co-promotor with Inge Liebaers
CLAUDIA SPITS. Public defence 2006. PhD dissertation: (R)evolution in preimplantation genetic diagnosis: development and clinical application of different approaches to preimplantation genetic diagnosis for monogenic disorders. Co-promoter with Inge Liebaers
Links to public databases
All Karen Sermon's publications can be found here:
All Karen Sermon's supervised masters and PhDs can be found here.
This includes PhD theses outside REGE where she was a jury member.