Sinem Karipcin

About

Embryo biopsy samples often leave a clinic for an outside genetics laboratory before anyone reads them. Columbia’s does not have to: the center describes its embryology laboratory as the only IVF lab in the country with a molecular biology and genetics workstation built into it, alongside air filtered to a thousand times cleaner than standard room air and a triple airlock entry sequence. Dr. Sinem Karipcin directs the program that uses that capability. She is Director of the Pre-Pregnancy Genetics Program at Columbia University Fertility Center and an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and her program is where the center’s rapid PGT-A test — STORK, which returns results in hours rather than the usual weeks — sits.

That turnaround is not a convenience feature. A chromosome result that arrives the same day instead of weeks later changes whether a patient transfers in the same cycle or waits one, and whether a couple carrying a known genetic condition gets an answer before or after a pregnancy loss. The center credits its genetics program as the first in New York City to deliver PGT-A results within hours — a claim about laboratory throughput rather than about prestige.

Karipcin studied medicine at Ankara University Medical School in Turkey (MD, 2013), trained in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Texas Medical Branch Hospital (2017), and completed her Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility fellowship at NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medical Center in 2020. She was selected as a Super Doctor in 2020 and holds an officer position in her subspecialty’s international society, serving as Clinical Applications Officer of PGDIS — the Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis International Society — and sitting on the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s PGT interest group. She sees patients in English, French and Turkish.

Clinical Expertise

• PGT-A (aneuploidy screening): Chromosome testing of embryos before transfer, run through the center’s own lab with the STORK rapid assay producing results in hours
• PGT-M (monogenic disease testing): Embryo testing for a specific inherited condition a parent carries, designed case by case with genetic counseling around it
• Carrier screening: Testing both prospective parents for recessive genetic disease risk before a pregnancy, or before embryos are created
• Pre-pregnancy genetic counseling: A multidisciplinary service built to help couples avoid transmitting a severe genetic condition, rather than to manage one after birth
• IVF with ICSI: The cycle mechanics that make embryo biopsy possible, since ICSI is the fertilization route used when embryos are going to be tested
• Laboratory-integrated genetics: Embryo biopsy, molecular analysis and interpretation under one roof, with time-lapse embryo monitoring and automated culture-dish preparation supporting the cycle

Why Choose Dr. Sinem Karipcin

She runs the program and holds office in the field. Directorship of a genetics fertility program plus a Clinical Applications Officership at PGDIS puts her inside the standard-setting conversation for preimplantation testing, not only its practice.

Speed as a clinical variable. Hours-not-weeks PGT-A results change what a patient can do with a cycle, and she is the physician attached to the service that produces them.

Counseling before, not after. Her program’s stated purpose is helping couples have a healthy child without the risk of a severe genetic disease, and its consultations start with the parents’ own genetics rather than with a pregnancy already underway.

Three languages and a Super Doctors listing. English, French and Turkish, and a 2020 Super Doctors selection — recognized by name rather than by institution.

Professional Affiliations

Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis International Society (PGDIS), where she serves as Clinical Applications Officer. American Society for Reproductive Medicine, member of its Preimplantation Genetic Testing interest group. Super Doctors, 2020. Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Columbia University, practicing within Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian, with the Pre-Pregnancy Genetics Program she directs drawing on the center’s CLIA-standard laboratory.

Suitable For

• Couples who carry a known genetic condition: PGT-M exists for this, and her program designs the test alongside the counseling
• Patients weighing PGT-A on age, reserve or repeated loss grounds: Aneuploidy screening run in-house, with results in hours rather than weeks
• Anyone with a family history of recessive disease: Carrier screening before pregnancy, for both partners
• IVF patients whose infertility is genetic in origin: Cycles that require ICSI, biopsy and a lab that reads its own samples
• Patients who prefer a documented subspecialty role: Program director, PGDIS officer and ASRM interest-group member are all verifiable positions rather than descriptors