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Meet Our Team

Fertility Clinic located in San Diego, CA

Samuel Wood

Samuel Wood, M.D, PH.D., M.A.,M.B.A., HCLD/CC(ABB), FACOG

Director of Fertility Services, President

Visit Dr. Wood's Personal website

Samuel Wood, MD, PhD, MA, MBA, HCLD/CC(ABB), FACOG, is the director of fertility services and president at Gen 5 Fertility Center in San Diego, California. He is one of the leading fertility specialists in the world and has helped patients from all continents have the babies they desired. 

Dr. Wood is a board-certified reproductive endocrinologist, world-renowned fertility specialist, and an expert in reproductive genetics with over 30 years of clinical experience. He is the only fertility specialist in the United States who has the honor of being a longtime listee in three Marquis’ publications: Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World, and Who’s Who in Science & Technology. 

Dr. Wood’s distinguished academic background includes a master's degree in psychology, a doctoral degree in biochemistry and molecular biophysics, and a Master of Business Administrator (MBA).  

After a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Dr. Wood's completed a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the University of California, San Diego, in La Jolla, California. 

Dr. Wood is board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology and reproductive endocrinology and infertility, achieving both in the quickest possible time. He has also earned the honor of being a certified high complexity laboratory director (HCLD) by the American Board of Bioanalysts (ABB) in two separate areas. 

Dr. Wood's clinical skills have won him many accolades, including being named a "Top Doctor" by U.S. News and World Report, a "Super Doctor" by SuperDoctors.com, and earned ratings of "Superb" (9.8) by the Avvo physician rating service and 4 out 4 stars on the patient-based rating site Vitals.com. 

Dr. Wood was named one of the “50 People to Watch” by San Diego Magazine and one of the 20 "Men who Impact San Diego" by San Diego Metropolitan Magazine. He is also a past member of the Board of Directors of the San Diego County Medical Society.

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Benito Villanueva

Benito Villanueva, M.D., FACOG

Fertility Specialist

With well over 30 years in the infertility field, Dr. Villanueva’s impressive track record has earned him the respect of his fellow Reproductive Endocrinologists and the admiration of his patients. In 1982, Dr. Villanueva marked an important milestone in the field of IVF. Only one year after the first successful IVF in the U.S. and three years after the first successful IVF in the world, he became the first fertility specialist to perform a successful IVF cycle in San Diego. His vast experience in IVF is of great value in many of the complicated IVF cycles that we routinely do.

The U.S. News and World Report has rated him as one of the most best in his field since 1995. Dr. Villanueva is one of the few physicians licensed to practice both in the U.S. and Mexico. He spends time on both sides of the U.S. and Mexico border serving patients at state-of-the-art healthcare clinics. Many of his patients fly in from South America and Europe because of his expertise and sterling reputation. 

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Martin Bastuba

Martin Bastuba, M.D., FACS

Director of Male Fertility Services

Dr. Martin Bastuba M.D. F.A.C.S. is a board certified male fertility specialist who was among the first to be accepted into the prestigious combined fellowship program for male infertility and sexual dysfunction at Boston University School of Medicine. Only 2% of urologists nationwide are trained experts in these highly specialized medical treatments. 

Over 25 years ago, Dr. Bastuba founded Male Fertility & Sexual Medicine Specialists (MFS) to help patients in need of treatment for male infertility, urological disorders and male sexual dysfunction.

Dr. Bastuba is the only board-certified urologist and Fellow of the American College of Surgeons who offers these services in San Diego. His experience and technical proficiency are complemented by his unique approach to patient care and service. He believes strongly in patient education and in creating a comfortable, informal environment in which to evaluate and provide treatment options for his patients.

Dr. Bastuba is well known for his expertise and high success rates in vasectomy reversal procedures. Patients from around the world travel to San Diego, California to receive vasectomy reversal surgery at MFS. He uses advanced microsurgical techniques to achieve high success rates in vasectomy reversal procedures and also has a successful track record with re-do vasectomy reversal surgeries.

In addition to MFS, Dr. Bastuba is the medical director at the Fertility Center of California, a cryobank offering fertility services, including sperm banking, donor sperm, artificial insemination, sex selection, fertility preservation and andrology laboratory services.

In all of his endeavors, Dr. Bastuba invests an immense amount of time and energy to ensure that his patients are educated about their treatments. He strongly believes that a patient’s care is as important before treatment as it is after treatment. He personally manages his patients’ care to provide maximum comfort and the very best results.

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Catharine Adams

Catharine Adams, PH.D., HCLD(ABB)

IVF Laboratory Director

Dr. Adams is our Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) Scientific Director and she is truly one of the best in the world. Among other honors, she is a certified High Complexity Laboratory Director (HCLD) in Embryology by the American Board of Bioanalysts (ABB). She was born and raised in Great Britain and received her Ph.D. in Mammalian Embryology from one of the leading educational institutions in the world, Cambridge University (England). Dr. Adams’ graduate research involved the deconstruction and reconstruction of blastocysts, work that provided a strong basis for her many years of outstanding work in multiple IVF laboratories.  

Dr. Adams was among the first to do many IVF laboratory procedures, including performing one of the first successful frozen embryo transfers in the U.S. in 1986. With more than 30 years experience, she deals with even the most challenging cases with aplomb. Her many skills, including complicated micro-manipulation, are legendary. Unlike the vast majority of Ph.D. level embryologists, she remains active in the IVF laboratory and personally performs or oversees virtually all complicated laboratory procedures. We are extremely pleased to have such an accomplished and renowned scientist direct our IVF laboratories.

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Molly Chen-Chu

Molly Chen-Chu, M.S., M.H.A., TS(ABB)

Assistant IVF Laboratory Director

Molly Chen-Chu is our Assistant IVF Laboratory Director. This extraordinarily talented embryologist has earned the honor of being a certified Technical Supervisor (TS) in Embryology by the American Board of Bioanalysts (ABB). We are extremely pleased to have someone with such a diverse and extensive experience as part of the Gen 5 Fertility team. Molly grew up in Taipei, the capital city of Taiwan, near the famous Taipei 101. Her academic background is most impressive. She completed her laboratory education with a Master of Science from Taipei Medical University and subsequently received a Master of Health Administration (M.H.A.) from the prestigious program at the University of Southern California (USC) finishing with a GPA of 4.0. She has over 20 years of experience in IVF from programs in Taiwan, Singapore and, for the last 10 years, in the United States.

Molly has outstanding skills in all areas of the assisted reproductive technologies and is renowned particularly in the areas of egg freezing and mini-IVF. She specializes in helping patients that other fertility centers have given up on because of their low prognosis. She does not give up on her patients and is with them throughout their journey to parenthood. She is tirelessly dedicated to her patients and has personally conducted over 2,500 IVF cycles in a single year.

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Khadija  Damji

Khadija Damji

Nurse Practitioner

Khadija Damji, BScN, RN, MSN, FNP-C, is a AANP Board Certified Nurse Practitioner who has specialized her training in women’s health and reproductive care.

Khadija earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Toronto Metropolitan University. She then went on to complete specialization certification in reproductive endocrinology and infertility nursing as well as obstetrical nursing. Ambitious to further her learning, she went on to complete her Master of Nursing in the Nurse Practitioner stream at Athabasca University.

With 10 years of experience, Khadija has worked with women seeking sexual health care, pre-conception counseling, labour and delivery, postpartum care through to menopausal management but has found her truest passion in caring for patients facing infertility.

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