Equipment
Get in touch if you have a question about our Equipment today
Our Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Laboratory is fitted out with technically advanced, leading edge and innovative equipment which allows our Fertility Tasmania Embryology team to provide our patient’s gametes and embryos with the best possible care
EmbryoScope™
An EmbryoScope™ is a specialised incubator, designed specifically for the culture of human embryos, it contains a microscope and camera which facilitates time-lapse imagery of embryo development. The camera takes images of each embryo during its time in culture, which results in an image over time (time-lapse) of each embryo’s development.
In routine practice, the progress and development of your embryos is monitored once or twice a day. This requires the Embryologist to remove your embryos from the incubator and examine them under a microscope, before returning them to the incubator. This gives only us a snapshot of what your embryos are doing each day and disturbs the embryos as they have to be removed from the incubator (a temperature control environment). Using the EmbryoScope™, embryos can be observed at any time of the day or night, without disturbance!
The aim is to use the EmbryoScope™ time-lapse video system to assist in the selection of the embryo or embryos for transfer and storage. The effectiveness of the Embryoscope™ is still uncertain. However, the results from ART units around the world are very encouraging. That said, the EmbryoScope™ is not for everyone, and cannot make a poor embryo good. So, your Doctor and/or Embryologist will talk to you about whether you might be suitable.
The EmbryoScope™ is an expensive piece of equipment, engineered to the highest standards. It also uses specialised culture dishes over and above that of a conventional incubator. Fertility Tasmania have structured the cost of EmbryoScope™ into the IVF/ICSI cycle so patients are not required to pay any additional fees, should their doctor recommend its use.
Fertility Tasmania currently only has one EmbryoScope™, which has a capacity of 6 patients (72 embryos in total). So, there may be occasions when the EmbryoScope™ is full and not available for any additional patients
Integra 3™
Every detail of the Integra 3™ is a purpose built micromanipulation system which facilitates the best possible conditions for ICSI and embryo biopsy. Temperature and time are critical within an ART lab. The advanced mechanical design of the Integra 3™ is ultra-responsive and effortlessly smooth, so it’s quick and easy to use. Thermosafe™ is an integral heating system that maintains samples at the optimum temperature by emitting warm air precisely and uniformly towards the Petri dish.
Saturn 5™
The Saturn 5™ Biopsy Mode significantly improves the embryo biopsying methods by; reducing procedure time, lowering the incidence of blastocyst collapse and eliminating the need to mechanically tear off cells.
Using Biopsy Mode, you can draw a straight or curved line along the sample, select the number and size of holes for a more precise breach of the zone pellucida. The laser will ablate exactly along the chosen path, meaning you no longer need to move the holding pipette at all. The Saturn 5™ pilot laser travels down the same fibre optic path as the ablation laser, therefore guaranteeing consistent positioning.