PI: John Fox
Co-PI(s): N/A
University: Lehigh University
Industry partners: LifeAire Systems LLC, NextGen Life Labs
Evidence ranging from anecdotal to clinical studies finds an inverse relationship between IVF outcomes and VOCs. Specifically, increased VOC concentrations in IVF clinics have been found to lower patient outcomes across all stages. Since the 1990s, assisted reproductive clinical outcomes have been linked to chemical air contaminants and/or VOCs, with anecdotal evidence supporting an inverse relationship between clinical outcomes and VOCs. A newly developed model by John Fox fundamentally describes VOC mass transfer in IVF clinics from air phase VOCs to the oil overlay to the water/culture phase and ultimately to the embryo/cell phase. This novel environmental modeling of VOCs in IVF facilities provides fundamental support for the inverse relationship between airborne VOCs and clinical outcomes. This newly developed model provides insight as to how air-phase VOCs can partition into the water/culture phase and ultimately onto/into the embryo/cell phase and provides insight into which VOCs are available for disrupting successful embryogenesis. However, this model needs to be verified and calibrated for laboratory conditions. The experimental plan consists of placing cell culture media without any human cells into an embryology laboratory for environmental testing. The proposed work will measure the air phase concentrations of VOCs in the laboratory and simultaneously quantify the VOC concentrations in the cell culture media.