Embryonics Israel-based data-driven fertility company announced its data-driven fertility company with Jaslok-FertilTree International Fertility Centre led by the internationally renowned Dr Firuza Parikh.
The newly set up partnership will aim to help increase the success rate of fertility treatments in the Indian subcontinent. Dr Parikh is one of the pioneers in the field and has many firsts in India including the birth of the first ICSI baby in 1994.
She has multiple awards for her contribution to IVF, being named one of Asia's 100 most powerful women in 2015.
As millennial women delay having children because of changing socio-economic patterns and gender roles, the IVF market continues to grow across the world. However, there is a discord between demand and the quality of the service being provided which is by no means the fault of IVF practitioners or embryologists.
In several key steps of the IVF process, the practices have remained largely unchanged for many years. Coupled with an increase in global infertility, a void exists in the market providing fertility companies both the opportunity and the inclination to develop innovative solutions to improve IVF success rates.
Women undergoing IVF face costs of anywhere between $10,000 (EUR8,000) to $25,000 (EUR20,000) per cycle, with no guarantee of success. It is here that Embryonics aims to reduce the number of IVF rounds and their attendant expenses. Embryonics has trained its algorithms using tens of thousands of data points from large clinics in the USA, Israel, Europe, and Asia and the first product to reach the market is UBAR, CE marked assistive embryo selection tool.
Designed to aid embryologists in selecting which embryo(s) to transfer is a huge success.
It addresses one of the most crucial steps for IVF success. UBAR's purpose is to assist embryologists in a highly subjective decision-making step, utilizing a more objective data-driven approach, and is not intended to replace the human factor. UBAR, builds on technology using bleeding edge deep learning in the clinical setting.
Trained using a large, multicentre dataset, UBAR is a cloud-based software which uses time-lapse videos or single images of blastocysts to predict implantation probability, automatically annotate morphokinetic events and assist embryo selection using a data-driven approach.
Dr Parikh's goals and vision align with those of Embryonics. She states that one of the keys to IVF success is selection of the best embryo for transfer. Having tested the Embryonics software called UBAR, she is pleased with the ease of use. Continuing her trend of being ahead of the curve and pushing reproductive boundaries, Dr Parikh is delighted to be Embryonics' first Indian collaborator.
Explaining computer-driven algorithms she says, "There are characteristics differentiating a good Blastocyst stage embryo which has a possibility of implanting from one that has less potential. Algorithms created by AI and deep machine learning detect signals from developing embryos most likely to result in babies. These include healthy and equal division of embryonic cells. Signals pick up the quality and placement of the inner cell mass which ultimately becomes the baby. The trophectoderm cells surrounding the inner cell mass form the placenta. The timing of the expansion of the Blastocyst at a particular time point also contributes to its success."
"When we compute these characteristics, the software comes up with a score from 1-5, 5 being the best. We have conducted interim analysis and have computed a predictive score most likely to result in a pregnancy. This method is simple and inexpensive," she added.
Talking about the new partnership, Embryonics CEO Tal Landman said, "We at Embryonics are delighted to finally have our presence in India through Jaslok Hospital and UBAR.
UBAR's purpose is to assist embryologists in a highly subjective decision-making step, utilizing a more objective data-driven approach, and is not intended to replace the human factor. I am thankful to Dr Parikh, who has chosen our product in making her dream of bringing happiness to so many Indian couples struggling with infertility.
2022 is also a special year for India and Israel as we celebrate 30 years of diplomatic relations, and I am elated that Embryonics could also enter the Indian market in the same year."
Karan Kalra, General Manager, APAC & MEA, said, "Partnering with a prestigious clinic as Jaslok-FertilTree International is a great honor and we are looking forward to helping prospective parents fulfilling their dreams using the latest technology. The Jaslok-FertilTree collaboration with Embryonics is taking the frontiers of IVF towards a new era of AI-driven personalized medicine."
Embryonics is an artificial intelligence (AI) fertility company whose goal is to drastically improve IVF success rates through data-driven means, whilst modernizing the fertility lab, increasing the profitability of IVF clinics and, most importantly, gifting parents struggling with infertility the joy of a successful birth.
The Israeli company is led by a multidisciplinary team of expert machine learning specialists, data scientists, physicians, biologists, and embryologists.
Among its founders is Prof. Alex Bronstein who heads the Technion-IIT's Department of Computer Science and a fellow of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). An internationally recognized expert in machine learning and computer vision, he has hundreds of publications and patents in the field.
Bronstein also stands behind several successful companies that exited and was acquired by household names such as Intel and Philips. CTO & Co-founder David Silver is a world expert in the field of geometric machine learning, studied math and biology under the auspices of the Rothschild Excellence Program at the Technion and undertook a fellowship at the prestigious Microsoft PhD program in Cambridge, UK.
Recently the team also welcomed a new medical advisor, Dr Ilan Tur-Kaspaan internationally recognised specialist in Reproductive Medicine and Infertility, specializing in personalized advanced Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) and the author and co-author of over a hundred scientific publications and textbook contributions.
(With inputs from ANI)
