Alan Hersh Decherney, M.D.

Reproductive Endocrinology and Science

Deviations from the norm can prevent the establishment of pregnancy or contribute to obstetrical disorders associated with aberrant placentation. Through basic and translational research, our mission is to identify the critical cellular and molecular events that are required for successful implantation and to understand their relationship with the pathologies of early pregnancy. Our objective is therefore to understand the biology of the developing blastocyst, which requires the differentiation of the trophectoderm—its outer epithelium—into invasive trophoblast cells and the maintenance of a cohort of pluripotent embryonic stem cells. We thus focus on the developing blastocyst, trophectoderm, and pluripotent embryonic stem cells and investigate the interactions between the uterine endometrium and implanting blastocyst at the inception of pregnancy. We are evaluating agents that would provide cellular and molecular evidence of successful and pathologic implantation.

Alan Hersh DeCherney, M.D. received his Medical Degree from Temple University School of Medicine where he was AOA and awarded the Henry Laughlin Alumnus of the Year Award in 2005. His internship in Medicine was at the University of Pittsburgh, followed by a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds an honorary Master of Arts Degree from Yale University and he completed a research fellowship in Immunology at the Lister Institute in London, England. He is currently Deputy Clinical Director for Academic Affairs, Director, Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Fellowship Program and Head, Reproductive Endocrinology and Gynecology Affinity Group of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. DeCherney has been a Member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Institute of Medicine (IOM) since 2004 and was Chairperson of the IOM Interest Group on Maternal & Child & Human Development 2008 to 2010. In 2015 he served on the IOM Committee on Ethical and Social Policy Considerations of Novel Techniques for the Prevention of Maternal Transmission of Mitochondrial DNA Diseases.

He is a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; Past President of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine; a Past President of the Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, the Society of Reproductive Surgeons, and the Society of Assisted Reproductive Technology. He is a Member of the American Gynecological and Obstetrical Society and a Past President of the Society for Gynecologic Investigation (now Society for Reproductive Investigation (SRI). He is the recipient of the President’s Achievement Award from SRI as well as the 2016 Distinguished Service Award. He was the Editor–in-Chief of the journal, Fertility and Sterility, from 1996 to 2011. He was an Associate Editor and Editorial Board Member of the New England Journal of Medicine and a Member of the Editorial Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. DeCherney is a Diplomate of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility and is a Fellow Ad Eundem of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, London.