This episode of the Progress Educational Trust (PET) podcast explores what needs to be done – and why – to ensure that people of diverse ancestries and social backgrounds are represented in genomic data, and in health-related data more generally.

The discussion is chaired by Sarah Norcross (Director of PET), with contributions from:

⚫ Anika Ladva (Head of Community Engagement at Our Future Health)

⚫ Sasha Henriques (Researcher at Wellcome Connecting Science and at the Wellcome Sanger Institute)

⚫ Professor Segun Fatumo (Professor and Chair of Genomic Diversity at Queen Mary University of London)

⚫ Dr Divya Shanmugam (Researcher at Cornell Tech)

PET is grateful to Our Future Health for supporting this discussion.

PET is also grateful to Jon Nicoll, who created the opening and closing music for its podcast.

Register at https://www.progress.org.uk/events/upcoming-events/ for upcoming PET events.

This episode of the Progress Educational Trust (PET) podcast discusses implications – for patients, practitioners and policymakers – of health conditions, and aspects of lifestyle, that can affect fertility treatment outcomes.

The discussion is chaired by Sarah Norcross (Director of PET), with contributions from:

⚫ Dr Antony Nicoll (Senior Medical Officer for Maternal and Women's Health for the Scottish Government)

⚫ Professor Rebecca Reynolds (Professor of Metabolic Medicine at the University of Edinburgh)

⚫ Professor Colin Duncan (Professor of Reproductive Medicine and Science at the University of Edinburgh)

PET is grateful to the Scottish Government for supporting this discussion.

PET is also grateful to Jon Nicoll, who created the opening and closing music for its podcast.

Register at https://www.progress.org.uk/events/upcoming-events/ for upcoming PET events.

This episode of the Progress Educational Trust (PET) podcast discusses pregnancy loss in relation to fertility treatment, including how to identify and reduce risks and how to provide appropriate support.

The discussion is chaired by Sarah Norcross (Director of PET), with contributions from:

⚫ Dr Andrea Woolner (Early Pregnancy Lead for NHS Grampian)

⚫ Dr Cheryl Dunlop (Consultant in Gynaecology and Reproductive Medicine at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh)

⚫ Dr Matthew Prior (Head of Department at the Newcastle Fertility Centre)

⚫ Katy Schnitzler (Information, Research and Training Lead at the Miscarriage Association)

PET is grateful to the Scottish Government for supporting this discussion.

PET is also grateful to Jon Nicoll, who created the opening and closing music for its podcast.

Register at https://www.progress.org.uk/events/upcoming-events/ for upcoming PET events.

This episode of the Progress Educational Trust (PET) podcast explains and explores the different approaches of the UK's largest genomics projects, and the impact of these projects on healthcare, research and society.

The discussion is chaired by Sarah Norcross (Director of PET), with contributions from:

⚫ Professor Dame Sue Hill (Chief Scientific Officer for England)

⚫ Dr Adam Lewandowski (Deputy Chief Scientist at UK Biobank)

⚫ Chris Schonewald (Chief of Staff, and Director of Strategy, at Genomics England)

⚫ Dr Raghib Ali (Chief Executive, and Chief Medical Officer, at Our Future Health)

PET is grateful to Our Future Health for supporting this discussion.

PET is also grateful to Jon Nicoll, who created the opening and closing music for its podcast.

Register at https://www.progress.org.uk/events/upcoming-events/ for upcoming PET events.

This episode of the Progress Educational Trust (PET) podcast is the second instalment in a two-part discussion exploring whether assisted conception can address challenges posed by falling birthrates, and by decreasing population sizes.

The discussion is chaired by Sarah Norcross (Director of PET), with contributions from:

⚫ Professor Ann Berrington (Director of the Fertility and Family research group at the Centre for Population Change)

⚫ Professor David Bell (Principal Investigator for the Healthy Ageing in Scotland study)

⚫ Professor Søren Ziebe (Senior Scientist at Rigshospitalet's Laboratory of Reproductive Biology)

⚫ Satu Rautakallio-Hokkanen (General Director of Fertility Europe)

⚫ Professor Roger Gosden (biographer of the IVF pioneer Robert Edwards)

PET is grateful to the Scottish Government for supporting this discussion.

PET is also grateful to Jon Nicoll, who created the opening and closing music for its podcast.

Register at https://www.progress.org.uk/events/upcoming-events/ for upcoming PET events.

This episode of the Progress Educational Trust (PET) podcast is the first instalment in a two-part discussion exploring whether assisted conception can address challenges posed by falling birthrates, and by decreasing population sizes.

The discussion is chaired by Sarah Norcross (Director of PET), with contributions from:

⚫ Professor Geeta Nargund (Lead Consultant for Reproductive Medicine at St George's University Hospitals)

⚫ Professor Bart Fauser (Scientific Director of the International Federation of Fertility Societies)

⚫ Dr Chris Skedgel (Director of the Office of Health Economics)

⚫ Dr Paul Morland (demographer, author and broadcaster)

PET is grateful to Merck for supporting this discussion.

PET is also grateful to Jon Nicoll, who created the opening and closing music for its podcast.

Register at https://www.progress.org.uk/events/upcoming-events/ for upcoming PET events.

This episode of the Progress Educational Trust (PET) podcast discusses lessons for the fertility sector from the UK's infected blood scandal, and from the subsequent Infected Blood Inquiry.

The discussion is chaired by Sarah Norcross (Director of PET), with contributions from:

⚫ Professor Abha Maheshwari (Lead Clinician at Fertility Scotland)

⚫ Professor Marc Turner (Director of the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service)

⚫ Professor Emma Cave (Member of the Medical Ethics Expert Group at the Infected Blood Inquiry)

⚫ Professor Bobbie Farsides (Member of the Medical Ethics Expert Group at the Infected Blood Inquiry)

The UK's infected blood scandal is widely regarded as one of the country's worst ever treatment disasters. Between the 1970s and the 1990s, tens of thousands of people in the UK were infected – predominantly with HIV and Hepatitis C, in some instances with other infections including Hepatitis B and Hepatitis D – as a result of being given blood, or blood products or other tissue, that was contaminated.

Most of the infections were contracted either from blood transfusions (in circumstances including childbirth, surgery and treatment for injury) or from treatments for bleeding disorders (such as haemophilia). More than 3,000 deaths have been attributed to these infections, and it has been reported that as many as 140,000 relatives of people infected could seek compensation under new laws.

In this podcast, experts in assisted conception and in blood and tissue donation – plus members of the Medical Ethics Expert Group appointed to advise the Infected Blood Inquiry – explore what the fertility sector might learn from the infected blood scandal, from the Infected Blood Inquiry's final report and from the accompanying report focusing on medical ethics.

PET is grateful to the Scottish Government for supporting this discussion.

PET is also grateful to Jon Nicoll, who created the opening and closing music for its podcast.

Register at https://www.progress.org.uk/events/upcoming-events/ for upcoming PET events.

This episode of the Progress Educational Trust (PET) podcast discusses how to improve access to – and quality of – fertility treatment for LGBTQ+ people, families and communities.

The discussion is chaired by Sarah Norcross (Director of PET), with contributions from:

⚫ Dr Carole Gilling-Smith (founder, Medical Director and Chief Executive of the Agora Clinic)

⚫ Professor Nick Macklon (Medical Director of the London Women's Clinic)

⚫ Nancy Kelley (Executive Director of DIVA magazine)

⚫ Laura-Rose Thorogood (founder of LGBT Mummies)

⚫ Dr Marcin Śmietana (Research Fellow at Ca' Foscari University of Venice)

⚫ Jacob Stokoe (founder of Transparent Change)

⚫ Natalie Gamble (Director of NGA Law)

PET is grateful to Merck and Born Donor Bank for supporting this discussion.

PET is also grateful to Jon Nicoll, who created the opening and closing music for its podcast.

Register at https://www.progress.org.uk/events/upcoming-events/ for upcoming PET events.

This episode of the Progress Educational Trust (PET) podcast discusses access to and funding for preimplantation genetic testing (PGT), specifically in relation to monogenic conditions (PGT-M) and chromosomal structural rearrangements (PGT-SR).

The discussion is chaired by Sarah Norcross (Director of PET), with contributions from:

⚫ Charlotte Tomlinson (Clinical Genetics PGT Lead at Guy's Hospital)

⚫ Dr Melanie Nana (Clinical Research Fellow at King's College London)

⚫ Professor Frances Flinter (Chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's Statutory Approvals Committee)

⚫ Nick Meade (Director of Policy at Genetic Alliance UK)

⚫ Diana Perry (founder and Chief Executive of the Ectodermal Dysplasia Society)

PGT-M and PGT-SR both involve testing and selecting IVF embryos, in order to avoid – or reduce the risk of – genetic conditions that could jeopardise a pregnancy or affect the health of a future child.

This podcast explains and explores:

⚫ What PGT can – and should – be used for.

⚫ Why it can be difficult for some patients to access PGT.

⚫ What might be done to remove barriers to access.

PET is grateful to the D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust for supporting this discussion.

PET is also grateful to Jon Nicoll, who created the opening and closing music for its podcast.

Register at https://www.progress.org.uk/events/upcoming-events/ for upcoming PET events.

This episode of the Progress Educational Trust (PET) podcast features the medical pioneers responsible for the world's first live birth following a uterus transplant (in 2014), and for the UK's first live birth following a uterus transplant (in 2025).

The discussion is chaired by Sarah Norcross (Director of PET), with contributions from:

⚫ Professor Mats Brännström (pioneer of uterus transplantation and leader of the team responsible for the birth of Vincent Stenberg, the world's first child born following a uterus transplant)

⚫ Professor J Richard Smith and Isabel Quiroga (leaders of the surgical team responsible for the UK's first uterus transplant, and for the subsequent birth of Amy Isabel Davidson)

⚫ Eleanor Findlater (patient and Adviser to Womb Transplant UK)

⚫ Dr Natasha Hammond-Browning (Senior Lecturer in Law at Cardiff University)

PET is grateful to Create Health Foundation and Merck for supporting this discussion.

PET is also grateful to Jon Nicoll, who created the opening and closing music for its podcast.

Register at https://www.progress.org.uk/events/upcoming-events/ for upcoming PET events.