D Ilic - King s College London, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, London, UK

Embryo splitting has been introduced successfully to the veterinary medicine several decades ago and today is a part of standard practice. A very limited number of studies have been conducted in humans and non-human primates. The published material, especially studies with human embryos, is controversial. Some reports suggest that twinning technology will find clinical use in reproductive medicine in the future, whereas others conclude the opposite, that human twin embryos created in vitro are unsuitable not only for clinical but also for research purposes. In this talk, I will present an overview of embryo splitting experiments in humans and non-human primates and discuss the potential of this technology in assisted reproduction and research.