Gary Harton, PhD

GM Reproductive Health

Dr. Harton received his Bachelor of Science degree from James Madison University and his Ph.D. at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. Gary has been involved in a number of exciting breakthroughs in the field of reproductive genetics including performing the first clinical preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for an autosomal dominant disease (Marfan syndrome) and performing the first clinical PGD for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). In addition, Dr. Harton was involved in the team that pioneered non-disclosing Huntington disease PGD as well. He was also involved in the team that discovered and patented Karyomapping, a revolutionary new technology allowing practically any genetic defect to be diagnosed in embryos using one single array-based test.

After 20+ years serving in various roles, including both clinical laboratory and management positions, he began his commercial career performing Business Development and Market Development roles with two prominent genetics companies, a fertility start up and a large reference genetics laboratory.

Dr. Harton is certified by the American Board of Bioanalysis (ABB) as a Technical Supervisor, in Molecular Diagnostics. Dr. Harton currently serves as the Vice Chair, Preimplantation Genetic Testing Special Interest Group, ASRM, is a former member of the board of directors for PGD-IS, and a member of the Special Advisory Group for UK-NEQAS which performs external quality assessment schemes for preimplantation genetics. He has also served as Chair of the Steering Committee for the ESHRE PGD Consortium and has been an author on numerous peer reviewed scientific articles, abstracts and book chapters as well. Dr. Harton holds teaching positions at the Eastern VA Medical School (Norfolk, VA), the University of Kent (Canterbury, UK) and Bryant University (Smithfield, RI).