Experience with In Vitro Fertilization Clinics Raises Strong Warnings on Cell Culture/Processing Air Purification

Experience with in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics is sending a strong signal that applying significantly heightened air purification standards and more advanced technology to meet them may be critical across all cell culture/processing operations.

The learnings from a deep exploration of periodic dramatic declines in the success rate being seen in IVF processes and the effort to mitigate them were articulated by LifeAire Systems Founder and CEO Kathryn Worrilow at the ISPE “Facilities of the Future” conference, held in Bethesda, MD in late February.

Worrilow played a leadership role in a major Pennsylvania-based IVF clinic affiliated with Penn State University where she is a professor, prior to leading the charge in expanding the use of her full-time commitment to expanded use of the LifeAire technology in healthcare and lifescience facilities.

At the ISPE conference, she told the compelling story of: ● the research and drivers in her IVF clinic that led to the development of the significantly enhanced air purification technology that LifeAire is now offering ● why the enhanced purification capability is important for cell processing, and ● the results that are achieved.

“What led us to develop the LifeAire System,” she explained at the beginning of her talk, was “the painful lessons of the impact of subtle levels of airborne pathogens on successful in-vitro culture and processing of living cells.”

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