Ashok Agarwal

Ashok Agarwal is the Director of the Andrology Center, and also the Director of Research at the American Center for Reproductive Medicine at Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, USA. He is Professor at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, USA. Ashok is a 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 (Honors) in 1975, MSc in 1977 and PhD in 1983 at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (India), 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 (1984–1986), under the guidance of Anita P. Hoffer, 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 (Medical Director: Robert A. Newton, M.D., F.A.C.S.) 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 (Director of Urologic Research: Kevin R. Loughlin, M.D.) 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 (Medical Director: George L. Mutter, M.D.). 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 (HCLD) 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 (IVF) 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 highly successful 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 this highly successful 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 (Embryology and Andrology techniques) from 45 countries.
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 Society for Translational Medicine.
Publications, editorship and reviewership.
Ashok has published over 800 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 (h-index) is 136 (Google Scholar) and 102 (Scopus), while his citation count is over 77,026 on Google Scholar. According to ResearchGate, Ashok has an RG Score of 54.02 on 2,193 publications (1194 articles, 54 books, 245 chapters, 481 conference papers). 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 "Annals of Translational Medicine", "Arab Journal of Urology", "Asian Journal of Andrology", "Basic and Clinical 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 (ROS) 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 (both direct and indirect) 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 (e.g. carnitines, vitamins C and E, pentoxifyline) 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.
Publications.
A complete repository of Ashok's research publications (1991 – current) is available here. Ashok Agarwal's ORCID ID is https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0585-1026 and his Scopus Author ID is 7401480880. His Research Gate profile is available here.