Clinical Problem

The single greatest challenge in reproductive medicine is patient age.

Unlike every other cell in the body, the reserve of oocytes (egg cells) are not replaced throughout life, meaning that oocytes must last in the ovary for decades from birth until their ovulation. As a result, in vitro fertilisation (IVF) success rates sharply decline from age 35 onwards.

While assisted reproductive technology can increase the number of oocytes that are collected from patients, or assist fertilisation through in vitro lab protocols, there are no solutions to improve oocyte quality.

IVF success rates (%) with age

Solution

In clinical IVF, the lab protocols used for fertilisation and embryo development are crucial to success. The greatest bottleneck in this process is the process of embryo development to a stage known as the blastocyst, which has the greatest chance of resulting in a live birth. Around half of all fertilised oocytes are lost to this step, limiting options for embryo transfer to patients.

Our approach seamlessly integrates into existing IVF workflows, with the aim of improving blastocyst formation rates.

Our Science

Our approach to improve IVF success rates addresses a key metabolic deficiency that drives declining oocyte (egg cell) quality with age. We have developed a patent-protected formulation of our compound with long-term aqueous stability and improved shelf-life, which is currently undergoing testing for clinical use.

This approach is a result of academic research at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and the University of Queensland (UQ).

Supporting research:

Bertoldo & Listijono et al Cell Reports 2020

Ho & Marinova et al EMBO Molecular Medicine 2024

Smits et al Human Reproduction 2023