Science and Technology

Auxogyn’s technology is based on the pioneering research described in the 2010 Nature Biotechnology article by Wong/Loewke et al. as well as ongoing R&D efforts related to early human developmental biology.

“Non-invasive imaging of human embryos before embryonic genome activation predicts development to the blastocyst stage” by C.C. Wong, K.E. Loewke, N.L. Bossert, B. Behr, C. J. De Jonge, T.M. Baer, and R.A. Reijo Pera, Nature Biotechnology 28, 1115-1121 (2010).

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http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v28/n10/abs/nbt.1686.html

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Auxogyn, Inc. has exclusively licensed the underlying intellectual property from Stanford University and plans to further develop the science, technology and clinical relevance. Our R&D program boasts a multidisciplinary team of molecular and developmental biologists, engineers and clinical researchers that are working to develop proprietary imaging and molecular-based technologies to treat human reproductive failure.

Immature oocyte: The mother provides all of the mRNAs and many other nutrients for the embryo to develop in transcriptional silence following fertilization.	Day 0: Metaphase II (MII) oocyte with chromosomes at metaphase II of maturation, characterized by the presence of a first polar body. A fully mature oocyte ready to be fertilized.	Day 1: Fertilized oocyte (called a zygote) with 2 pronuclei carrying the maternal and paternal DNA and chromosomes. The embryo is "reprogramming" or erasing epigenetic programs from the mother and father.	Day 2: 2 cell embryo formed from cleavage division of zygote early on Day 2. Transcription remains silent.	Day 2: Late on day 2, the second cleavage division results in 4 cells in an embryo that remains transcriptionally-silent as it finishes initial reprogramming.
GV Oocyte	Day 0 MII Oocyte	Day 1 Zygote	Day 2 2 cell embryo	Day 2 4 cell embryo
Day 3: The 8 cell embryo is formed with the third cleavage division. About this time, the embryo turns on its own embryonic genes for the first time.	Day 4: The embryo compacts to form a morula. The embryo has 16-32 cells at this time. If there are too few cells, the embryo may not develop appropriately.	Day 5: The embryo forms a blastocyst with the outer layer of cells or trophectoderm (see left arrow) to attach the embryo to the uterus after transfer and the inner group of cells (see right arrow) called the inner cell mass (ICM). The ICM forms all tissues of the fetus and ultimately child.	Day 6: The embryo hatches out of an outer shell called the zona pellucida and if transferred can attach to the uterus. Following attachment, the embryo will form all the tissue types of the body via cell signaling, cell-cell interactions and molecular pathways.
Day 3 8 cell embryo	Day 4 Morula	Day 5 Blastocyst	Day 6 Hatching Blastocyst