Meet APRIL : The Robot Changing How IVF Labs Prepare Embryo Culture Dishes

LONDON - EntSun -- There is a robot working in IVF labs right now that most embryologists outside the US have not heard of yet. It is called APRIL – the ART Pipetting Robot for the IVF Laboratory and a peer-reviewed study published in Fertility and Sterility found it prepares embryo culture dishes ten times more precisely than a human doing the same job.

That is not a headline number pulled from a press release. It comes from a prospective randomised study at Columbia University Fertility Center ranked the number one fertility clinic in the United States by Newsweek comparing APRIL's dish preparation against standard manual methods, using both mouse and human embryo outcomes as the measure.

Dr Zev Williams, who led the research and directs the Columbia fertility centre, put it plainly: "IVF requires extraordinary precision, but human hands introduce variability, no matter how skilled."

More on EntSun News

• Radarsign™ Awarded Sourcewell Contract Expanding Access to Traffic Safety Solutions
• MainConcept and NETINT Bring VPU Acceleration to Easy Video API
• Tune into spring with live music at Compass Hotel by Margaritaville Naples
• Dr. Roxanne Contee Continues to Shine as a Powerhouse in Philadelphia Fashion, Media, and Community
• Larry R. Wasion's Jump Gate 2: Teleporter Expands the Time Travel Universe with High-Stakes Action and Ethical Dilemmas

That sentence is worth sitting with. It is not a criticism of embryologists. It is an honest observation about the physical limits of manual work at microscopic scale limits that affect every human in every lab, regardless of training or experience.

Cryolab Ltd highlights peer-reviewed research from Columbia University Fertility Center on APRIL, published in Fertility and Sterility. A prospective randomised study found APRIL prepares embryo culture dishes ten times more precisely than manual methods. Dr Zev Williams, lead author and centre director, noted that human hands introduce variability regardless of skill.

Full article: https://cryolab.co.uk/april-robot-ivf-laboratory-embryo-culture-dishes/