ARCS 365 Webinars

Tuesday 2oth January 2026, 12.00PM

Getting confident with inclusive language – how to get it right and what to do if you get it wrong

With more LGBTQ+ people accessing fertility services, it can feel daunting to know how to get language right. Even when you have the best intentions, there can be a worry that you’re going to say the wrong thing or upset someone, which can then be a barrier to care. This confidence building talk will give some really easy guidance on how to get language right, and also some top tips on what to do if you do get it wrong, so you can do what you do best – giving high quality fertility care.

Tuesday 17th February 2026, 12.00PM

Q&A session with Prof Aitken
Professor Aitken

We are thrilled to share with our members the interview we recorded with Professor John Aitken during Fertility 26 in Edinburgh. Professor Aitken was invited by ARCS to give the Bob Edwards Memorial Lecture at Fertility 26, which was a tour de force that took us from population dynamics to our future dependence on ART. He has published hundreds of research articles and book chapters, and is author of the book ‘The Infertility Trap’.

In this interview, we ask him about sperm DNA damage, environmental toxicants, and what areas of reproductive biology he thinks offer the greatest opportunities for major breakthroughs. He also tells us who influenced him most, and what emerging areas of reproductive biology he thinks Bob Edwards would be most excited about were he alive today.

With thanks to our interviewers, Meurig Gallagher and Celine Jones.

Tuesday 17th March 2026, 12.00PM

Work and how to survive it: Attending to your emotional wellbeing to avoid burnout
Ruth Wilde

This webinar is all about you! It will focus on how to take care of yourselves as professionals working in high-pressure, high-stakes environments.
It includes:

• the signs of burnout and how to avoid getting to that point.
• stress and how to manage it,
• the role of your internal dialogue and how this contributes to your wellbeing (or not)
• action you can take now to improve your wellbeing.

Click here to access the references as mentioned in the webinar.

Tuesday 21st April 2026, 12.00PM

How to write an abstract

Level up your scientific storytelling at our next ARCS 365 session on “How to Write an Abstract.”
This practical session will break down what makes an abstract clear, compelling, and conference ready.
We will cover how to:
• sharpen your message
• structure your key sections
• highlight impact
• avoid common pitfalls, so your work stands out for the right reasons.
Bring your ideas (or a draft) and leave with a simple, repeatable approach you can use for posters and presentations.

Tuesday 19th May 2026, 12.00PM

Supporting neurodiversity in the workplace

This talk will give an introduction to neurodiversity in the workplace, with consideration of experiences for neurodivergent people. The talk will consider ways to support neurodivergent colleagues, trainees and patients through individual adjustments, as well as wider consideration of how to move towards a more neuroinclusive workplace. Throughout the talk there will be real-life examples and signposting to useful resources for further learning about neurodiversity.

2025 Talks and Speakers

Single-cell reference atlas of the human endometrium

Friday 31st January, 12:00 – 12:45

This talk will explore the complex and dynamic cellular composition of the human endometrium in health and endometriosis, as revealed by our study, which built a large-scale single-cell reference atlas of the endometrium (Nature Genetics, doi: 10.1038/s41588-024-01873-w). Key findings will be covered, including discovery of new cell types, cell-cell signalling pathway coordination and identification of the most likely dysregulated cell types in endometriosis through integration of single-cell data with large-scale endometriosis genome-wide association study data. More broadly, the talk will describe what single-cell technologies are, how they can be used to study reproductive tissues in vivo and in vitro, and will discuss the implications of using these technologies and data generated to study endometrial physiology and disorders, and for guiding microphysiological in vitro systems development.

Artificial oocyte activation improves ICSI outcomes following unexplained fertilization abnormalities

Thursday 27th February, 16:00 – 16:45

This talk will explore the clinical challenge of oocyte activation deficiency for couples experiencing unexplained infertility. Unexpected low and total fertilisation failure following ART treatment are rare but devastating events for patients and care providers. With a lack of underlying explanation and limited treatment options it can be difficult to advise these patients on next steps.  Our investigation retrospectively analysed the provision of Artificial Oocyte Activation (AOA) with a calcium ionophore to overcome previous unexpected fertilisation abnormalities at the Assisted Conception Unit, Ninewells Hospital, since 2014.  (https://www.rbmojournal.com/article/S1472-6483(24)00516-9/fulltext). This study represents the largest cohort of patients from a UK, HFEA licensed centre so far and was performed prior to the removal of AOA as a treatment add-on by the HFEA. In this session we will explore the key findings of the investigation, most notably that AOA is an effective intervention for Oocyte Activation Deficiency. We will discuss when it is appropriate it offer patients AOA, and how the results of this study can help personalise the patient pathway and reduce failed ART cycles.

Rescue of late maturing oocytes in poor prognosis patients: delayed intracytoplasmic sperm injection (DICSI) results in more viable embryos

Tuesday 25th March, 16:00 – 16:45

This talk will delve into the application of delayed intracytoplasmic sperm injection (DICSI) in late-maturing oocytes, presenting findings from a comprehensive retrospective analysis of 2,243 oocytes across 311 ART cycles. The discussion will cover the methodology, including the criteria for DICSI application, and key outcomes such as fertilization, blastocyst formation, and live birth rates.

Key findings will be highlighted, including the maturation potential of GV and MI oocytes in vitro, the comparable euploidy rates and live birth outcomes of blastocysts derived from MI and MII oocytes, and the ability of DICSI to rescue unproductive cycles, with 8.7% of cases resulting in live births or ongoing pregnancies.

More broadly, the talk will discuss the clinical implications of DICSI as a tool to optimize ART success rates, its potential to increase the number of embryos available for testing in PGT-A cycles, and its role in advancing personalized approaches to fertility care.

Sperm separation and selection techniques to mitigate sperm DNA damage

Thursday 24th  April  12:00 – 12:45

Techniques used in the separation and selection of sperm can take advantage of one or more facets of sperm function, including motility, morphology, density, and maturity, to reduce the risk of using DNA-damaged sperm in treatment and, thereby, potentially optimising outcomes.
Whilst the focus has often been on the fertilising ability of sperm, it is increasingly evident that the paternal genome is relevant to post-fertilisation events such as embryonic genome activation and blastocyst development, and has a fundamental impact upon successful implantation, ongoing pregnancy and live birth. The clinical use of sperm separation and selection techniques will be examined with a particular focus on the mitigation of the impact of sperm DNA damage.

Rare voices in preimplantation genetic testing

Tuesday 20th  May  16:00 – 16:45

Nick’s talk will cover Genetic Alliance UK’s role in the HFEA’s regulation of preimplantation genetic testing over the past 15 years. He will describe their current process to generate evidence to help the HFEA’s decision-making process, and close by asking whether wider rare condition decision-making should learn from the threshold-based approach, whether their approach to screening is equitable, and discussing the HFEA’s duty to review the list.

#myHCPCstandards: Duty of candour

Tuesday 24th  June 12:00 – 12:45

Florence will explore the duty of candour requirements across the UK, some of the challenges in meeting these requirements and how to overcome these.

Sustainability in IVF labs

Tuesday 23rd September, 12:00 – 12:45

We are all aware of global warming and environmental changes due to increasing air pollution and excessive use of plastic packaging. This session will introduce the newly established ARCS Sustainability committee and how we plan to raise environmental awareness by educating, sharing our experiences and showing different ways we can reduce our impact and introduce sustainable practices. Talk will also discuss the impact of pollution on fertility and why it’s so important to take action, however small to protect the future generations we help to create.

Vitrolife sponsored symposium – Combining IVF short insemination time and Time-Lapse Technology to improve Laboratory Workflow 

Thursday 23rd October, 12:00 – 12:45

The incorporation of Time Lapse technology has led to significant workflow improvements in the IVF laboratory, particularly for timing of fertilisation checks in ICSI cycles as injected oocytes can be placed directly into time lapse incubators post injection, ensuring that pronuclear formation can be assessed at a convenient time for the laboratory staff.  However in clinics with a normal mix of ICSI and IVF cycles, there is still the need to assess IVF oocytes within 17 hours of insemination (Updated ESHRE/ALPHA consensus 2024) meaning that to fit within ‘normal’ working hours, oocytes should not be inseminated before 3pm if a fertilisation assessment is to be made by 8am the next morning.  As the normal practice is to inseminate (or inject) oocytes 40h post trigger, this would meant IVF OPU should not be before 11am, a major issue limiting scheduling of theatre operations in many clinics.  Short IVF insemination (defined as COC incubated with sperm for 1-8 hours before removal of COC from insemination wells and subsequent denudation) has a long history dating back to the early 90s with data supporting equivalent normal fertilisation rates in comparison with overnight incubation of sperm and COCs.  In this presentation I will show how a change of practice using short IVF insemination times will allow clinics with time lapse technology to introduce more flexible scheduling, eliminating the need for abnormally late delays in IVF inseminations or unrealistic early morning assessments of fertilisation checks of IVF cycles.

The eternal dilemma: are embryos better nurtured in utero or in vitro?  

Tuesday 25th November, 12:00 – 12:45

This talk will explore one of the most debated topics in IVF treatment: the optimal timing for embryo transfer. While blastocyst-stage transfer has become widely adopted due to its higher implantation potential and the possibility to better synchronize with endometrial receptivity, it may not offer universal benefits. A significant proportion of embryos fail to reach the blastocyst stage in vitro despite being chromosomally normal, raising concerns that extended culture may lead to unnecessary loss of viable embryos. We will discuss probability-based calculations to estimate an embryo’s live birth potential at the cleavage stage, evaluating whether earlier transfer might improve LB chances compared to extended culture. This is particularly critical for poor prognosis patients, who typically produce fewer embryos and face a higher risk of having no viable blastocysts for transfer. The talk will challenge the assumption that in vitro culture conditions adequately mimic the uterine environment and propose the use of a more individualized approach on the timing of embryo transfer.