Microfluidic technology for in vitro embryo production

In the last decade the use of in vitro production of mammalian embryos and the utilization of assisted reproductive technologies such as embryo transfer, cryopreservation, and cloning are being used to produce genetically superior livestock. However, efficiencies of these assisted reproductive technologies (ART'S) are low. For these ART's to become more commercially viable, the efficiencies must improve. Despite this importance of reproduction for the livestock industry, little progress in decreasing embryonic mortality has been made. The livestock industry has succeeded in achieving large increases in average milk production of dairy cattle, growth rate in beef cattle and leanness in swine but reproductive efficiency has actually decreased. For example, research has provided little progress toward developing an objective method to examine viability of a single living embryo. At the same time, the growth of miniaturization technologies beyond integrated circuits and towards small mechanical systems has created opportunities for fresh examination of a wide range of existing problems. While the investigation and application of miniaturization technologies to medicine and biology is progressing rapidly, there has been limited exploration of microfabricated systems in the area of embryo production. We have taken a major step in demonstrating microfluidic systems for embryo manipulation and analysis.