Providing Quality Services to Quality Service Providers

Sharon Mortimer, PhD

Sharon is co-owner and Director of Oozoa Biomedical.

Sharon graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Biological Sciences from the University of Newcastle, and a PhD from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney, Australia, and completed two years of postdoctoral research in the Department of Animal Science at the University of Sydney.

She became a clinical embryologist in 1985, working at the Royal Women’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia (1985–1987) and the Foothills IVF Programme in Calgary, Canada (1987–1991). She then became a consultant in IVF, serving as Director/Secretary of Mortimer Scientific Consulting Pty Ltd (based in Sydney, Australia) and later as Director of Oozoa Biomedical Inc (based in West Vancouver, Canada), involved in the development, design, and improvement of assisted conception programs. She was also Managing Director of GenARTech Pty Ltd, a successful laboratory supply company serving Australia and New Zealand from 1996 until 2001. Since then, she has served as: the Laboratory Director at the Genesis Fertility Centre in Vancouver BC, with overall responsibility for all aspects of laboratory services, including diagnostic andrology, assisted conception procedures and cryobanking, as well as the development and supervision of clinical and service-based laboratory research; the commissioning Scientific Director of the Pacific Centre for Reproductive Medicine in Burnaby, British Columbia; and the Scientific Director of Grace Fertility Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia. She is currently the off-site Scientific Director of the Fertility Laboratory, Eastern Regional Health Authority in St John’s, NL.

She is very interested in teaching and mentoring younger scientists and has appointments as an Adjunct Professor in the UBC Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the School of Women’s and Children’s Health at the University of New South Wales, Australia, and Honorary Lecturer at the Tshwane University of Technology in South Africa.

Her research interests are sperm kinematics, cryopreservation, the physiology of sperm-egg interaction and fertilization, and the development of tests of sperm function in vitro, as well as the evaluation of the impact of research. She is an active member of 10 professional societies, was a member of the committees that developed the certification standards for ART Laboratory professionals in Canada, and served on the Board of Fertility Matters Canada, the patient support and fertility education charity. She is currently the Chair-Elect of Alpha Scientists in Reproductive Medicine.

Her clinical scientific goals are to ensure that the best diagnostic and therapeutic methods are available to patients and to provide them with unparalleled quality of management to help them achieve pregnancies as quickly and cost-effectively as possible while minimizing the risk of multiple pregnancies. Her research communication goals are to mentor junior scientists in the development and presentation of their research, to ensure the continuation of the tradition of effective communication of scientific ideas and results to promote discussion and further discovery.

Writing and editing experience

Sharon co-authored Quality and Risk Management in the IVF Laboratory (Cambridge University Press, 2005, and 2015 (2nd edition)) which is now a standard textbook in the field, and has authored or co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and more than 100 conference presentations, and has been an invited speaker at scientific conferences around the world. She has facilitated and co-authored eight international professional consensus guidelines, including the Istanbul Consensus on Embryo Morphology Assessment, the Vienna Consensus on Laboratory Performance Indicators, the Cairo Consensus on the IVF Laboratory Environment and Air Quality, and the Cairo Consensus Guidelines on IVF Culture Conditions.

In addition to writing manuscripts, Sharon has significant experience in manuscript review and publishing. She is an ad hoc reviewer for 15 journals, was a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Animal Reproduction Science (2000–2004), and Editor-in-Chief of Reproduction, Fertility and Development (2004–2009), and is a Science Section Editor for Reproductive Biomedicine and Society Online (2016–).

She has also served as a research grants professional for the health sciences: she was a professional editor and grant writer for UBC’s Faculty of Medicine from 2003–2009, and then the Senior Director, Programs for the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. In these roles, she was responsible for the creation, submission, and review of hundreds of grant proposals in all fields of medical research, ranging from small operating grants (from $50,000 p.a.) to large, institutional infrastructure grants (the largest that was funded was for $37 million). Since 2010, she has been a freelance editor for research grants and manuscripts in all areas of the health sciences and works with clients from all over the world. She offers both structural and substantive editing services, and will, if requested, offer a review of grants and manuscripts related to reproductive biology. She is a native English speaker, with some basic knowledge of French and German, and a familiarity with Italian.

A complete academic CV is available upon request.