APRIL (ART Pipetting Robot for the IVF Laboratory)

History

2024: Product Yield

In mid-October 2024, American researchers from the Fertility Center of Columbia University reported the appearance of the first robot for in vitro fertilization (IVF). A system called APRIL (ART Pipetting Robot for the IVF Laboratory) is said to significantly improve the effectiveness of the procedure compared to traditional methods.

The system uses a preprogrammed mechanical arm with a laboratory instrument similar to a pipette. The robot is specially designed to handle fluids. It is designed to professionally prepare embryonic cultures by incubating and feeding fertilized human eggs in petri dishes for microdroplet cultivation. The use of the APRIL system is claimed to increase the total number of usable human embryos by 4.2%.

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Robotic technology allows you to maintain the correct acid-base balance (pH) in the fluid around the embryo, bringing it closer to optimal levels that help the living body grow and develop. In particular, a strictly defined pH score helps regulate cell division and differentiation, as well as enzyme activity. As a result, the chances of success of the IVF procedure as a whole increase.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), infertility affects about 17.5% of the adult population, that is, about one in six people in the world. Despite the large scale of the problem, methods of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of infertility, including assisted reproductive technologies such as IVF, remain underfunded and inaccessible to many people due to their high cost, the associated social stigma and the limited supply of such services. Researchers hope that the APRIL system will help reduce the cost of IVF procedures for expectant parents in the future.^[1]

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