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About Braverman IVF & Reproductive Immunology

About Dr. Vidali

Reproductive Surgeon, Reproductive Endocrinologist

Dr. Vidali brings to Braverman IVF & Reproductive Immunology unique expertise. As a fertility specialist with over 20 years of experience, Dr. Vidali also has extensive experience in minimally invasive and robotic surgery.

Dr. Vidali specializes in the surgical treatment of endometriosis as it relates to infertility, implantation failure and pregnancy loss. He has specific interest in understanding and treating silent endometriosis in patients with repetitive IVF failure or implantation failure.

He also specializes in non-invasive treatment of uterine fibroids with laparoscopic myomectomy. In fact, Dr. Vidali pioneered the introduction of laparoscopic myomectomy for infertility patients, helping to set a new standard of treatment for women with fibroids who desire fertility1.

Throughout the course of his career Dr. Vidali has held leadership positions within academics. He was the Director of the Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Division of Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, NJ, and held two Directorships at Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center in New York City where he was the Director of the Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility and the Director of Advanced Laparoscopic Surgery.

After completing his fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology at Columbia University, Dr. Vidali embarked on a successful collaboration and partnership with one of his mentors and laparoscopic surgery and Endometriosis treatment pioneer Dr. Harry Reich. With Dr. Reich and colleagues, Dr. C.Y. Liu and Dr. Tamer Seckin, Dr. Vidali partnered to create an advanced gynecologic surgical practice at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York in 2001.

Dr. Vidali's fellowships include Obstetrics & Gynecology at Georgetown University and Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons.

1: Ribeiro SC, Reich H, Rosenberg J, Guglielminetti E, Vidali A. Laparoscopic myomectomy and pregnancy outcome in infertile patients. Fertil Steril. 1999 Mar;71(3):571-4. PubMed PMID: 10065802.




About Dr. Melvin H. Thornton II

Dr. Melvin Thornton is working with Dr. Vidali and carrying on the groundbreaking work of Dr. Jeffrey Braverman. This collaboration adds Dr. Thornton’s extensive Fertility experience with the practice of Reproductive Immunology to provide new diagnostic testing with expert analysis, treatments and protocols to aggressively and successfully treat the cause of what was once known as “unexplained infertility” and or multiple pregnancy loss.

Dr. Melvin H. Thornton, II is double board certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine. He has been helping families in the Tri-state for over 18 years. Dr. Thornton completed his OB/GYN internship and residency as well as his Reproductive Medicine fellowship at the University of Southern California. He received additional training in advanced reproductive surgery at The Cleveland Clinic before joining the faculty at Columbia University.

While at Columbia, Dr. Thornton was the Director of the Egg Donation Program at the Center for Women’s Reproductive Care (CWRC) at Columbia University Medical Center. He has an extensive research background in the treatment of HIV sero-discordant couples and the relationship to infertility and fertility treatment. Additionally, while at Columbia he served on the Institutional Review Board for five years. He has published more than 30 papers, written several book chapters and presented nearly 40 abstracts at professional conferences on topics related to women’s health, infertility and third party reproduction.

Dr. Thornton had dedicated many years and countless hours teaching and mentoring medical students, residents and fellows. He is currently an Associate Professor at Quinnipiac University and provides lectures in reproductive medicine and infertility to OB/GYN residents at New York Medical College. He is an excellent educator and gives board review lectures for OB/GYN, Family Medicine and Pediatrics residents preparing for their board examination.

Although his interests include all aspects in the treatment of infertility, he is particularly recognized as being has one of the world’s leading experts in egg donation and surrogacy. His patients describe him as a reassuring, caring, and personable physician. He has been a member of the ACGME Clinical Competency Committee for Obstetrics and Gynecology at Columbia and currently sits on the ASRM Undergraduate, Graduate, Medical and Postgraduate Education Committee (UGMPEC). He is currently a member of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The American Society of Reproductive Medicine and the American Society of Addiction Medicine.




About Dr. Nadéra Mansouri-Attia

Dr. Nadéra Mansouri-Attia

Dr. Nadéra Mansouri-Attia joined Braverman IVF & Reproductive Immunology after coming here from France and being educated in the finest French Universities. She received her MSc. cum Laude in Reproductive Physiology from University Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris VI, focusing on female reproduction. She received her Ph.D. summa cum Laude in reproductive Physiology and Development from University Paris-Sud School's of Medicine, Paris XI.

During her Ph.D., she worked on the bovine model in the context of early pregnancy. Her research focused on studying the feto-maternal crosstalk and the impact of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) such as In Vitro Fertilization-Embryo Transfer (IVF-ET) on the pregnancy outcome using state-of-the-art technologies to analyze global transcriptomic data. Her work brought novel insight in the control of embryo implantation and was the first in the world to raise a very new and important concept in reproductive medicine, the active role of the endometrium as a biosensor when confronted to the embryo. The same concept was demonstrated as relevant and probably also essential in humans only three years ago.

During her post-doctoral training at the University College of Dublin (Ireland), she gained extraordinary experience in the field of Immunology of Reproduction. Her work characterized the maternal immune response to early pregnancy with a particular interest on the fertility issues of the high yielding dairy cows.

This has practical benefits and applications to improve reproduction management and the use of ART for sterile couples. By screening the early response of the mother to the embryo and by determining at an early stage the pregnancy outcome, this work will ultimately lead to the development of new strategies to counteract the maternal immune response defects. Her work has been recognized as outstanding and was awarded by the French National Academy for Agriculture and was published in several top journals in the field of reproduction.

Most recently, she has worked on deciphering the molecular mechanisms and dysregulation of the ovarian function that could lead to disease such as ovarian cancer at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in Houston. Her knowledge and use of animal models to study reproductive pathologies will contribute to the development of future therapies for women.




Katie Carlson

Katie Carlson joined Braverman IVF & Reproductive Immunology as a Clinical Research Assistant in the summer of 2015. Katie graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in Biology and a minor in Science, Technology, and Society.

During her time as an undergraduate, Katie served as a research assistant at the University of Tennessee School of Veterinary Medicine, where she participated in several projects that used animals to learn more about cancer and cardiovascular disease. Her favorite project was designed to study the efficacy of Vesicular Stomatitis Virus in treating cancer in dogs.

Katie went on to complete two years of veterinary school at the University of Pennsylvania, but decided she wanted to get more involved in human medicine. This experience was valuable as she can apply the knowledge she gained about medicine and immunology to her position at BRI.

Katie is passionate about science and medicine, and especially educating people about these subjects. She is excited to be working with the entire team at BRI, and is thankful for this opportunity to help women make their dream of becoming mothers a reality.