Development of an automated system for blastocyst biopsy with minimal invasiveness in IVF clinics

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One in six Canadian couples struggles with infertility. In clinical in vitro fertilization (IVF), ~60% embryos that proceed to transfer end in pregnancy loss caused by chromosomal aneuploidy. To select euploid embryos with high implantation potential, embryo biopsy is widely used in IVF to collect a few trophectoderm cells (which will develop into the placenta) from Day 5/6 embryos for preimplantation genetic testing (PGT). Present embryo biopsy is a complicated manual operation and demands high skills for cell manipulation. It requires long training time, but still suffers from large damage to the embryo and collected cells, which reduces the embryo's reproductive potential and PGT accuracy. This I2I project aims to develop a system for automated embryo biopsy with minimal damage. The system is able to automatically manipulate embryos with minimal cell deformation, determine collected cell number, and separate target cells along cell connections/junctions without impairing them. This automated biopsy system will eliminate operator subjectivity and inconsistency in manual biopsy, minimize damage to both embryos and collected cells, which will greatly improve the embryo's reproductive potential and PGT accuracy. The commercialization of this automated embryo biopsy technology will standardize the practice of embryo biopsy in IVF clinics and help clinics meet the rapidly increasing demand for embryo biopsy worldwide. In addition, this technology will help reduce the heavy psychological and financial burden on patients/families who experience repeated IVF treatment failures. The high-quality embryos selected through automated, minimally invasive biopsy will help improve the health of offspring, resulting in higher quality of life and lower cost to the healthcare system over the child's life.