Genx International, Inc.

Timothy Schimmel

Michael D Cecchi

Jacques Cohen

Monica Mezezi

An embryo culturing incubator is provided with a shelf configuration that enhances air circulation inside of the incubator, and enables unimpeded access to the individual embryo culture plates that are disposed on the shelves in the incubator. The incubator has an access door which allows one contact with the embryo culture plates on the incubator shelves. The shelves are configured so as to provide a useful free space between the inner surface of the incubator door and the frontal surface of the shelves in the incubator. The size of the free space allows a technician to reach all of the culture plates in the incubator without interfering with other culture plates in the incubator. The free space also allows for exemplary air circulation inside of the incubator.

Embryo-culturing incubator assembly

An embryo culturing method and apparatus enables a plurality of embryos to be grown in communal clusters in a culturing container. The embryos are kept separate from each other in open interconnected compartments that are disposed in the culture container. Each compartment is contained in a structure having a plurality of interconnected compartments, and each compartment is sized to contain a single embryo. The culturing container will contain a plurality of the compartmentalized structures. The method and apparatus of this invention includes a culturing container, such as a Petrie dish, in which the embryos are grown. The Petrie dish preferably contains a plurality of the embryo-culturing compartmentalized structures which can be positioned in the Petrie dish in a predetermined pattern. For example, the compartmentalized structuress can be positioned in the Petrie dish at the 12 O'Clock, 2 O'Clock, 4 O'Clock, 8 O'Clock and 10 O'clock positions, or in any other planned deployment. The individual structures can be individually identified by letters, for example, such as A, B, C, D, etc. Each compartmentalized structure can contain a plurlaity, for example four, compartments which are interconnected for fluid exchange, but which are sized to restrain migration of an embryo from one compartment to another. The compartments in each structure can be identified by numerals, i.,e., 1, 2, 3 and 4. Thus each compartment in each structure would have a unique identifier code, such as A1, B2, C3, and the like; or 1-4, 5-8, 9-12, or the like. Any identifier system can be used which will enable the individual embryos to be distinguished one from another. After the embryos are placed in the compartments in each structure, each of the structures is covered with a drop of an embryo-enhancing growth nutrient so that each of the embryos in any one structure is exposed to a common growth nutrient, and each embryo in each compartmentalized structure can share growth by-products with each of the other embryos in the same compartmentalized structure.

Growing community of inventors

Randolph, NJ, United States of America

Timothy Schimmel