User:Sippan71/Paul V. Holmes

Chief Executive Officer: Paul V. Holmes, BMedSc (Hons), MSc, PhD, DrMedSc. (Major Shareholder)

Born in the UK, Dr. Holmes grew up in Canada, later emigrated to Sweden and holds British, Canadian and Swedish citizenships. He received his BMedSc (Hons) from the University of Western Ontario Medical School in 1968, and both MSc and PhD in Medical Sciences (human anatomy and classical embryology) from the University of Calgary Medical School (Canada) in 1970 and 1972, respectively. Then, he worked on a Canadian MRC Postdoctoral Fellowship with Prof. Owe Nilsson in the Anatomy Department at the University of Uppsala in Sweden (1972-3).

After serving as a founding member of the Faculty of Medicine in Calgary in 1973–77, he moved permanently to Sweden as the Deputy Medical Director of the pharmaceutical company Hässle-Ciba-Geigy AB (1977–79) and, later, to the Sahlgrenska University Hospital (Göteborg, Sweden) where he helped establish their IVF Laboratory (1979–85). In 1985, he received his DrMedSc. in Medical Endocrinology from the University of Gothenburg Medical School, where he also functioned as Associate Professor (1985–92), as well as Senior Researcher at the Sahlgrenska Hospital, Dept of Ob/Gyn (1985–93).

During the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, Dr. Holmes also had a private company called Conception Research & Management AB. From this company a 100% owned daughter company was founded in 1992 called Scandinavian IVF Science AB (SIVFS AB) and this company utilised Holmes’ research results to develop a complete series of the first pharmaceutical quality, assisted-reproduction-technology (ART) products available to the world market. After Holmes left this enterprise in 1996 in order to start Nidacon International AB, SIVFS AB changed its name to Vitrolife AB. Very soon thereafter, Nidacon’s PureSperm® became the first product in the world to be 510K registered for ART by the FDA; a further step toward quality assurance for the human embryo. The principal research interests of Dr. Holmes were always focussed on embryo development and implantation, with particular reference to human infertility. However, he also developed surgical and perfusion methodologies for removing living organs and retaining their normal physiology during perfusion in vitro for several days. During his time at Calgary Medical School in Canada and at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Sweden, he supervised a number of PhD students and Fellows, gave numerous lectures and research papers, both nationally and internationally, received several awards from Canadian and Swedish research foundations, served as referee for several leading medical journals, and undertook consulting work in the fields of biotechnology and human ART.

Although Dr. Holmes retains a personal membership in several international scientific societies, he no longer holds an academic appointment, now focussing on product-related R&D and business development for NidaCon International. During recent years, he was able to develop NidaCon International into becoming the world’s leading manufacturer and supplier of quality sperm-preparation products for the human ART market, with the strong brand name PureSperm®, a product range which has become a virtual bench mark of the sperm preparation world.