Dr Dimitra Nikiforaki is a senior clinical embryologist (certified by ESHRE) located in Athens Greece. She gained a firm background in molecular biology and basic research before studying clinical embryology at the University of Oxford. It was there that she became involved in research on the oocyte activation factor Plcζ. Her doctoral thesis on oocyte activation and the causes of fertilization failure at the University of Ghent, where assisted oocyte activation was applied clinically for the first time, resulted in several important findings in the field