Australian invention to standardise and automate IVF process

Genea Biomedx’s Gavi (Genea Automated Vitrification Instrument) was launched to fertility specialists, scientists and nurses at the Fertility Society of Australia conference in Sydney yesterday. It is said that the Australian invention will revolutionise one of the key IVF processes by removing the risk of human error.

The instrument automates vitrification - the process of freezing IVF patients’ embryos for use in later cycles - thus standardising what is currently a highly manual process which is subject to environment and human variation. It has the potential to more than halve the time it takes scientists to vitrify embryos while still delivering world-class IVF pregnancy rates.

“In IVF labs across the world, vitrification is currently undertaken many times each day by embryologists, requiring a high level of manual dexterity and leading to variations in the way embryos are handled,” said Genea Biomedx General Manager Sam Lanyon.

“What we’ve done is create an instrument, a robot, to effectively do that manual, labour-intensive process automatically.”

Lanyon said that “by standardising the process and ensuring each embryo is treated in the best way possible, we are likely to improve outcomes and increase the number of patients taking home a healthy baby”. This was backed up by Genea Biomedx R&D Principal Scientist and Embryologist Dr Tammie Roy, who presented the outcome of preclinical development work on Gavi which has been undertaken within the Genea labs over the past three years.

“Our extensive preclinical trials have shown that Gavi reduces processing time while ensuring the embryos remain safe. Gavi is already producing results that are equivalent to the current manual process and we are confident that the use of this instrument will lead to better outcomes for labs and therefore patients,” Dr Roy said.

Genea Biomedx was recently established by fertility group Genea and is currently developing a suite of IVF products that will improve couples’ chances of starting a family. Genea CEO Tomas Stojanov noted that Genea’s patients have a 40% greater chance of taking home a healthy baby compared to the average of all other Australian and New Zealand clinics.

“Through the establishment of Genea Biomedx, we are giving IVF patients and clinics in other countries the chance to benefit from our world-leading Australian scientific and technological know-how,” Stojanov said.