Ashok Agarwal


Ashok Agarwal is the former Director of the Andrology Center, and also the former Director of Research at the American Center for Reproductive Medicine at Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, USA. He is a former Professor at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, USA. Ashok is a former Senior Staff in the Cleveland Clinic's Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute. He has published extensive translational research in human infertility and assisted reproduction.

Education

Ashok obtained his BSc in 1975, MSc in 1977 and PhD in 1983 at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, under the guidance of Late C. J. Dominic, PhD, FNA. He did his post-doctoral research on a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship at the Division of Urology, Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, under the guidance of , PhD, Ed.D.

Professional life

After his post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School, Boston, Ashok worked as the Director of the Andrology Laboratory and Sperm Bank at the Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Boston between 1986 and 1988. He was then appointed as the Director of Male Infertility Research and as an instructor in surgery and later an Assistant Professor of Urology at Harvard Medical School between 1988 and 1992. Aside from his teaching responsibilities, Ashok worked as the Coordinator of Andrology Testing in the Reproductive Endocrinology Laboratory in the Brigham and Women's Hospital. Ashok was appointed in 1993 by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio, as the Head of the Clinical Andrology Center, which over the years under his leadership, has become a center of excellence for the diagnosis of male infertility and for fertility preservation of men with oncological conditions in the United States.
Ashok is a board certified Clinical Laboratory Director in Andrology by the American Board of Bioanalysis and an Inspector for the College of American Pathologists "Reproductive Laboratory Program" for accreditation of Andrology and In Vitro Fertilization Laboratories. He has served as the Chairman of Board of the American College of Embryology from 2009 to 2012.
He is the Director of the Summer Internship Course in Reproductive Medicine. In the last 13 years, over 320 pre-med and medical students from across the United States and overseas have graduated from the annual program.
Ashok is active in basic and clinical research and his laboratory has trained more than 525 basic scientists and clinical researchers from over 55 countries. His American Center for Reproductive Medicine has provided hands on training to 210 candidates in human assisted reproduction from 45 countries.
By the number of citations, he is the most cited author of several medicaljournals such as Fertility and Sterility, Urology, Reproductive Biomedicine Online, Andrologia, Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology. Ashok has been invited as a guest speaker to over 30 countries for important international meetings. He has directed more than a dozen Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) and Andrology Laboratory Workshops and Symposia in recent years. He is a member of the International Advisory Committee on Male Infertility for the .

Publications, editorship and reviewership

Ashok has published over 840 research articles and reviews in peer reviewed PubMed-indexed scientific journals. He has also authored over 225 book chapters in specialized medical books, and presented over 830 papers at both national and international scientific meetings. His Hirsch index is 150 and 107, while his citation count is over 90,653 on Google Scholar. According to ResearchGate, Ashok has an RG Score of 54.37 on 2,193 publications. Ashok is ranked as the No. 1 Author in andrology/male Infertility and ART-related research, based on a Global Ranking of Authors Publishing in Andrology or Male Infertility report employing exhaustive searches on the Scopus database. Ashok is currently an editor of 42 medical text books or manuals related to male infertility, ART, fertility preservation, sperm chromatin damage and antioxidants. He is also the Guest Editor of 12 special journal issues and an ad hoc reviewer for over 50 scientific journals.
Ashok serves on the Editorial Board of Asian Journal of Andrology, Human Andrology, Human Fertility, International Brazilian Journal of Urology, International Journal of Fertility & Sterility, Reproductive BioMedicine Online, Reproductive Biology & Endocrinology, Translational Andrology and Urology, The World Journal of Men's Health, and International Journal of Molecular Sciences.

Scientific career

Ashok is the recipient of over 100 research grants and is actively involved in laboratory and clinical studies looking at the efficacy of certain antioxidants in improving the fertility of male patients.

1990–1999

In the early years, Ashok and his team at ACRM studied the physiological levels of reactive oxygen species and its relationship with sperm quality in healthy volunteers of unproven fertility and in infertile men. They went on to study the negative effects of oxidative stress generated during sperm processing and cryopreservation during ART procedures on semen quality. Ashok and his researchers looked into the cut-off values for ROS levels to distinguish between fertile and infertile men and the measurement of oxidative stress.

2000-2009

In the following decade, Ashok and his team at ACRM investigated the physiological and pathophysiological effects of endogenous and exogenous ROS. Ashok and his researchers continued to examine normal range of ROS generation to distinguish between fertile and infertile men.

2010–2014

In the new millennium, Ashok and his team at ACRM examined the role of antioxidants as defense mechanisms to neutralize and prevent the over-production of ROS in relation to male infertility.

Current research

In the more recent years, Ashok has been working on the studies on molecular markers of oxidative stress, DNA integrity, effect of radio frequency radiation on fertility and fertility preservation in patients with cancer. His research focus currently is on the use of proteomics and bioinformatics tools in discovering the biological processes and pathways underlying OS-induced infertility.

Awards and honors

  • 2007: SCSA Research Award, American Society for Reproductive Medicine
  • 2008: CCF Innovation Award 2007 for "Supplementation of L Carnitine in the Culture Media Causes a Significant Decrease in DNA Damage and Improves Embryo Quality – A Novel Finding"
  • 2011–2012: Innovator Award, Cleveland Clinic Innovations
  • 2010–2019: Star Award, American Society for Reproductive Medicine
  • 2011, 2013, 2014: Scholarship in Teaching Award, Case [Western Reserve University Medical School] for the ,
  • 2013, 2014: Scholarship in Teaching Award, Case Western Reserve [University School of Medicine] for the
  • 2017: Outstanding Paper Award, Asian Journal of Andrology
  • 2018: Exceptional Research Productivity and Outstanding Research Collaboration, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar
  • 2018: Outstanding Paper Award for , Asian Journal of Andrology
  • 2018: Outstanding Paper Award for , Asian Journal of Andrology
  • 2019: , American College of Embryology
  • 2019: Most Cited Article Award for , World Journal of Men's Health
  • 2020: Excellence in Online Education by Mexican Association of Reproductive Medicine and Arab School of Urology
  • 2021: Excellence in Online Education by Royal College of Ob-Gyn in Egypt, the American College of Embryology, and French speaking Society of Andrology

Membership in professional societies (since)

  • 1984 – American Society for Reproductive Medicine
  • 1984 – American Society of Andrology
  • 1993 – American Urological Association
  • 1993 – Society for the Study of Male Reproduction
  • 1994 – Asian Society of Andrology
  • 1994 – European Society of Human Reproduction & Embryology
  • 1994 – American Association of Bioanalysis
  • 1996 – Society for Male Reproduction and Urology
  • 2013 – Alpha Scientists in Reproductive Medicine

Publications

A complete repository of Ashok's research publications is available . Ashok Agarwal's ORCID ID is and his Scopus Author ID is . His ResearchGate profile is available .

Books

Human Reproduction

  1. . Authors: Ashok Agarwal, Luna Samanta, Damayanthi Durairajanayagam, Paula Intasqui, 2016,
  2. . Editors: Diana Martin, Stefan Du Plessis, Ashok Agarwal, 2016,
  3. . Editors: Ashok Agarwal, Rakesh Sharma, Sajal Gupta, Avi Harlev, Gulfam Ahmad, Stefan S. du Plessis, Sandro C. Esteves, Siew May Wang, Damayanthi Durairajanayagam, 2017,
  4. . Editors: Ralf Henkel, Luna Samanta, Ashok Agarwal, 2018,

Male Fertility

  1. . Editors: Ashok Agarwal, John Aitken, Huan Alvarez, 2012,
  2. . Editors: Stefan Du Plessis, Edmund S. Sabanegh, Ashok Agarwal, 2014,
  3. . Authors: Alaa Hamada, Sandro C. Esteves, Ashok Agarwal, 2016,
  4. . Authors: Sandro C. Esteves, Chak-Lam Cho, Ahmad Majzoub, Ashok Agarwal, 2019,
  5. Authors: Ralf Henkel, Ashok Agarwal, 2021,

Male Infertility – Management

  1. . Editors: Sijo Parekattil, Ashok Agarwal, 2012,
  2. . Editors: Botros Rizk, Nabil Aziz, Ashok Agarwal, Edmund Sabanegh, 2013,
  3. . Editors: Sonia Malik, Ashok Agarwal, 2014,
  4. . Editors: Glen Schattman, Sandro Esteves, Ashok Agarwal, 2015,
  5. . Editors: Botros Rizk, Ashok Agarwal, Edmund S. Sabanegh Jr., 2019,
  6. . Editors: Sijo Parekattil, Sandro Estevas, Ashok Agarwal, 2020,

Sperm Chromatin

  1. . Editors: Armand Zini, Ashok Agarwal, 2011,
  2. . Editors: Armand Zini, Ashok Agarwal, 2013,

Female Fertility

  1. . Editors: Ashok Agarwal, Botros Rizk, Nabil Aziz, 2012,
  2. . Authors: Sajal Gupta, Avi Harlev, Ashok Agarwal, 2015,
  3. . Editors: Philip Kumanov and Ashok Agarwal, Springer Publishing, New York, 2016.
  4. . Editors: Asher Bashiri, Avi Harlev, Ashok Agarwal, 2016,

Fertility Preservation

  1. . Editors: Emre Seli, Ashok Agarwal, 2011,
  2. . Editors: Emre Seli, Ashok Agarwal, 2012,
  3. . Editors: Emre Seli, Ashok Agarwal, Springer, 2012,
  4. . Editors: Ahmad Majzoub, Ashok Agarwal, 2018,

Assisted Reproductive Techniques (ART)

  1. . Editors: Fabíola Bento, Sandro Esteves, Ashok Agarwal, 2012,
  2. . Editors: Zsolt Peter Nagy, Alex Varghese, Ashok Agarwal, 2013,
  3. . Editors: Ashok Agarwal, Damayanthi Durairajanayagam, Gurpriya Virk, Stefan Du Plessis, 2015,

ART Guides, Manuals, Methods and Protocols

  1. . Editors: Zsolt Peter Nagy, Alex Varghese, Ashok Agarwal, 2012,
  2. . Editors: Zsolt Peter Nagy, Alex Varghese, Ashok Agarwal, 2013,
  3. . Editors: Zsolt Peter Nagy, Alex Varghese, Ashok Agarwal, 2013,
  4. . Editors: Ashok Agarwal, Edson Borges Jr., Amanda S. Setti, 2015,
  5. . Editors: Zsolt Peter Nagy, Alex C. Varghese, Ashok Agarwal, 2017,
  6. . Editors: Zsolt Peter Nagy, Alex Varghese, Ashok Agarwal, 2019,

Andrology Laboratory Guides, Manuals and Workbooks

  1. . Editors: Kaimini Rao, Ashok Agarwal, MS Srinivas, 2010,
  2. . Editors: Sonia Malik, Ashok Agarwal, 2012,
  3. . Editors: Agarwal A, Gupta S, Sharma R, 2016,
  4. . Editors: Ashok Agarwal, Ahmad Majzoub, Sandro Esteves, 2021,
  5. . Editors: Ashok Agarwal, Ralf Henkel, Ahmad Majzoub, 2021,

Guides for Clinicians

  1. . Editors: Sijo Parekattil, Ashok Agarwal, 2013,
  2. . Editors: Armand Zini, Ashok Agarwal, 2013,
  3. . Editors: Sijo Parekattil, Ashok Agarwal, 2013,
  4. . Editors: Nabil Aziz, Ashok Agarwal, 2017,
  5. . Editors: Armand Zini, Ashok Agarwal, 2018,
  6. . Editors: Mohamed Arafa, Haitham Elbardisi, Ahmad Majzoub, Ashok Agarwal, 2020,

Journal Special Issues (Guest Editor)

  3. .
  4. .
  5. .
  6. .
  7. .
  8. .
  9. .
  10. .
  11. .
  12. .
  13. .