Nicole Prudenciano

Program

Master of Biomedical Science (MBS)

Why Guelph? Why MBS?

I went to the University of Guelph for my undergraduate degree and loved the experience; the people on campus are so friendly and the professors are extremely approachable and truly want their students to succeed. I chose to complete my graduate studies in the Master of Biomedical Science program with a focus on applied reproductive biotechnologies because through my undergrad I found that I enjoyed developmental biology and embryology courses. I also had the opportunity to try laboratory research through some of my other courses and found them interesting, so when I found out about the opportunity to do a master's specializing in reproductive technology at the University of Guelph, I was really excited to apply. I loved that there is both a hands-on aspect to the program where I spent time in the lab learning procedures while also getting to attend specialized classes about topics within my field.

A bit about the work you are doing here... 

I worked in the field of reproductive health and biotechnologies, and I had the opportunity to research the mechanisms of embryo development and the factors that influence it. I came across the field through my undergraduate degree here at the University of Guelph through embryology and reproductive biology courses and found that I enjoyed research through doing research courses offered through the undergraduate program. These helped me decide that I wanted to pursue a master's specializing in reproductive biology and it was an amazing opportunity. My project involved looking at the impact of embryo culture temperatures on embryonic development, and it was amazing to have the opportunity to get hands-on experience with in-vitro fertilization procedures and culture an embryo to the blastocyst stage!

How do you think your research can potentially improve life? 

My work aimed to identify ways to optimize in-vitro fertilization procedures to enable better production of embryos. Through assessing the efficacy of current procedures and comparing them to various interventions I hope that we can increase the production and quality of embryos made in-vitro and improve the capabilities of current assisted reproductive technologies.