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Automation of the In Vitro Fertilization Laboratory

Automation of the In Vitro Fertilization Laboratory: A Validation Study

Status
Recruiting
Phases
Unknown
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT06581068
Enrollment
150
Registered
2024-08-30
Start date
2024-12-03
Completion date
2027-06-01
Last updated
2026-08-27

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

ART, Infertility

Brief summary

Enrolled patients will undergo an Assisted Reproductive technology (ART) treatment using intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI, the direct injection of a single sperm cell into an oocyte) as the method of insemination. In this prospective cohort study, patients' sperm, eggs, and embryos will be processed using an automated system called AURA (Conceivable Life Sciences), which consists of five subsystems. Specifically, sperm samples will be prepared for fertilization using the subsystem C:SPERM. Cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) containing the oocytes will be isolated from follicular fluid using the subsystem C:EGG. One out of every four COCs will be removed from the AURA system at random and processed according to the local treatment clinic's standard operating procedure. All other COCs will continue automated procedures and will be denuded, fertilized, incubated, and vitrified using the AURA subsystems C:EGG. C:ICSI, C:CULTURE and C:VIT, respectively. All automated procedures will be conducted under the supervision of a laboratory manager, who can intervene, address any potential anomalies, and override any steps undertaken by the automated AURA system. The study aims to deliver a descriptive evaluation of the AURA system, including assessing the device's performance, defined by its level of automation, efficiency, and throughput. As a secondary objective, the study aims to characterize the clinical performance of each of AURA's subsystems and correlate this performance against pre-established benchmarks in a non-inferiority statistical analysis. Finally, the study seeks to collect technical data related to AURA's hardware and software operation.

Interventions

DEVICEAURA assisted ART treatment

The AURA device consists of five subsystems, which will operate in logical sequence to deliver comprehensive automation of the laboratory element of an ART cycle. The AURA treatment begins after ovarian stimulation, on the day of egg collection. A sperm sample is provided on the same day of egg collection. Sperm samples will be prepared by the C:SPERM subsystem. Follicular fluid obtained at egg collection will be processed by the C:EGG subsystem. 3 out of every 4 cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) recovered will be denuded by the C:EGG subsystem. These denuded eggs will be fertilized by the C:ICSI subsystem, incubated in the C:CULTURE subsystem and all resulting suitable embryos will be vitrified by the C:VIT subsystem. Thawed embryos may be used in conventional frozen embryo transfers.

Sponsors

Conceivable Life Sciences
Lead SponsorINDUSTRY
Hope Fertility Center
CollaboratorUNKNOWN
Reina Madre
CollaboratorUNKNOWN
Nascere
CollaboratorUNKNOWN

Study design

Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 45 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

* Informed consent signed by the patients before treatment. * Medical indication to perform assisted reproductive technology. * Body mass index between 20 and 29 kg/m2 (female participants only). * For women with indication of utilizing autologous eggs: * Anti-Müllerian Hormone (AMH) value of at least 1.5 ng/mL. * 18 - 39 years of age. * For women utilizing donor eggs (egg donor age 18-28 years): * 18 - 45 years of age.

Exclusion criteria

* Patients diagnosed with recurrent pregnancy loss. * Inaccessible ovaries for puncture. * History of total or partial fertilization failure in a previous fertility treatment. * History of repeated implantation failure defined as three previous unsuccessful embryo transfers. * Uterine factors (e.g. fibroids, uterine surgeries, Müllerian malformations) at the discretion of the medical team and based on its impact on success and/or risk to the patient or the pregnancy may compromise treatment prognosis). * Untreated hydrosalpinx * Severe endometriosis III, IV, presence of endometriomas and/or history of endometrioma resection. * Polycystic ovarian syndrome. * Patients with any of the following severe male factor infertility: * Sperm concentrations less than 5 million per mL * Progressive motility less than 5% * Others (e.g, globozoospermia and seminal infections) at the discretion of the medical team and based on its impact on success. * Surgically retrieved sperm (TESE, MESA, PESA) * Pre-existing conditions compromising reproductive (e.g., thrombophilia, chronic degenerative and autoimmune diseases, uncontrolled hormonal disorders). * Any other case of abnormalities that could compromise success rates according to the criteria of clinical personnel in charge. * Inability to adhere to the medical protocols and/or schedules for personal reasons. * Intercurrent medical disorder

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Autonomy9 monthsproportion of tasks successfully completed by the AURA system without requiring human intervention.
Procedural timings9 monthstime employed by the AURA system to complete each of its automated tasks.

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Sperm motility post preparation9 monthsproportion of sperm cells displaying motility (progressive) following sperm preparation.
Denudation survival rate9 monthsproportion of oocytes that do not lyse or degenerate at the end of automated egg discovery and denudation.
ICSI damage rate9 monthsProportion of oocytes that lyse or degenerate within 24 hours after ICSI.
Normal fertilization rate9 monthsproportion of oocytes with two pronuclei (and two polar bodies if assessable) 16 hrs after ICSI.
Blastocyst development rate9 monthsproportion of embryos with expanded/expanding blastocoele and discernible inner cell mass (ICM) and trophectoderm (TE) observed on day 5 of development (where ICSI is performed on Day 0) as a function of normally fertilized oocytes.
Usable blastocyst development rate9 monthsproportion of blastocysts of sufficient quality for transfer or cryopreservation observed within 6 days of fertilization as a function of mature (MII) eggs injected with sperm during ICSI.
Blastocyst cryosurvival rate9 monthsproportion of cryopreserved blastocysts that present re-expansion within 2 hours of warming.
Implantation rate9 monthsnumber of gestational sacs detected by ultrasound scan performed at gestation weeks 5-8 per total number of embryos transferred.
Clinical pregnancy rate9 monthsnumber of patients with fetal heartbeats detected by ultrasound scan performed at gestation weeks 5-8 per total number of patients with an embryo transfer.

Countries

Mexico

Contacts

CONTACTStephanie Kuku, MD
Stephanie@conceivable.life1-833-737-2448
CONTACTGiuseppe Silvestri
Giuseppe@conceivable.life
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORJacques Cohen, PhD

Conceivable Life Sciences

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Aug 28, 2026