Bovine Intravaginal Embryo Culture Device

There has been a 350% increase in the number of bovine In Vitro Production (IVP) procedures from 2013 to 2021 but a 7% decrease in the effective embryo production rate (IETS). There is demand for IVP but efficiency needs to be improved with better technology. ReproHealth Technologies Inc. is developing an innovative form of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Intravaginal Embryo Culture (IVC) for bovine production. The company's IVC method positions embryos to develop in a small culture chamber placed in the cow's vagina. Prior company studies provided promising data. The device is exposed to the cow's temperature and her dissolved CO2 maintains the pH of the bicarbonate buffered culture media inside. This project will assess the CO2 permeabilities of two plastics (polystyrene vs. polypropylene) to maintains the optimal pH for embryo development. The team will develop a method for attaching the chamber to the ubiquitous controlled intravaginal drug release (CIDR) device inserted into the cow's vagina. We will make injection molded prototypes and use these to grow bovine embryos in a cow vagina. ReproHealth anticipates an increase from 27% to 50 % embryo production rate and a holder that is easy to use and causes minimal irritation. This entire project involves development of key functional device components that will lead to a Phase II with a larger study in cows tracking successful embryo growth. A significant commercial market exists and has been validated by the company through customer discovery interviews and the development of a go to market strategy.