Supporting embryologists with redesigned workflows for today’s IVF
Our Core Purpose
Guided by a deep sense of responsibility to embryos and embryologists,
we develop precision tools that protect the delicate nature of embryos and empower embryologists,
so human expertise can deliver excellence at scale for the families who rely on it.
Our Story
Fertilis was founded in 2019 in Adelaide, Australia. The idea originated in the late 1990s when Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer Prof. Jeremy Thompson recognised the limitations of traditional manual IVF techniques.
In 2017, Prof. Thompson collaborated with experts from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale Biophotonics and Prof. David Gardner’s team at the University of Melbourne to turn that vision into micro-fabricated devices.
Today, Fertilis combines decades of world-class embryology expertise with advanced micro-engineering.
Our Philosophy
IVF demand is on the rise but the limitation to absorbing that demand is not the embryologist.
It is the absence of purpose-designed tools that match the profound sensitivity and precision these procedures demand.
Fertilis is developing precision micro-tools to simplify critical IVF procedures. We focus on making workflows easier, more consistent, and less fatiguing for embryologists, enabling labs to scale high-quality care while keeping human expertise and judgement at the centre.
Our Approach
We believe the best way to improve IVF outcomes and scalability is not to replace embryologists with full automation, but to empower them with better tools.
- Simplify first. Reduce procedural complexity and variability.
- Keep embryologists in control. Support expertise rather than try and automate it away.
- Build incrementally. Deliver usable products that integrate step-by-step into today’s labs while laying foundations for the future.
Our lead products, microICSI and microBiopsy, target the most technically demanding steps in the IVF process.
The Automation Assumption
Current innovation in IVF is heavily focused on full laboratory automation and robotics. This approach is built on two assumptions:
- The primary constraint in IVF is the variability of the embryologist.
- Complex IVF procedures can simply be automated.
We believe both assumptions are flawed.
Why We Think Differently
The embryologist is, and must remain, the catalyst for success.
While automation can improve consistency, automating a complex procedure does not eliminate its complexity.
It often transfers that complexity elsewhere, introducing new technical, operational, and biological challenges.
Empowering the embryologist
For the embryologist, every procedure requires both technical excellence and ethical responsibility.
They spend hours in the same position, performing repetitive micro-movements under high magnification, leading to common repetitive strain injuries. They also carry the emotional burden of delicate procedures when cycles do not develop as hoped.
To achieve excellence and sustain careers, the industry must equip embryologists with tools worthy of their vital responsibility.
Amplifying human expertise
While some approaches seek to minimise the human element, we believe the solution lies in human-centric innovation.
The embryologist’s hands and judgement are the expertise IVF patients rely on, to maximise their chances of pregnancy.
Our goal is to create tools that empower these experts, amplifying their capabilities rather than replacing them.
Our Technology
Traditional manufacturing was never designed for structures measured in microns. Two-photon polymerisation (2PP) changes what is possible.
We create precision structures at the scale of the cells we serve.
Engineering at cellular dimensions enables entirely new device designs that were previously impossible to manufacture.
This opens up opportunities for improved precision, standardisation, and workflow efficiency across all critical IVF procedures.
The resulting microstructures can cradle an oocyte within a contoured microwell that supports it without suction, absorbs and distributes the forces of manipulation, and provides individual numbering for perfect traceability, all while integrating seamlessly with existing microscopes and laboratory workflows.
Want to see how precision tools can simplify today’s IVF workflows while keeping human expertise central?
Team
Meet our team of experts
John Santich brings legal, commercial and technical depth to his role as co-founder, company secretary and legal advisor to Fertilis. With qualifications spanning engineering and law, with PhD in engineering, John has spent decades at the intersection of technology development and corporate law, advising on company formation and development for emerging resources and technology businesses.
His career has included work in government, academia and private practice across Australia, Europe and the United States, and he has promoted and directed numerous ASX-listed companies in the resources and technology sectors. John brings that experience to Fertilis as the company advances its micro-scale IVF device technology toward commercial sales in Japan, New Zealand and beyond.
Professor Jeremy Thompson is Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Fertilis. He invented the Fertilis devices after working in reproductive health for more than four decades.
Jeremy is an internationally recognised professor who has authored more than 200 journal articles. He has held leadership positions at the University’s Robinson Research Institute and the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale Biophotonics. From 1999 to 2004, he gained clinical experience serving as the director of IVF clinic Repromed.
He developed his commercialization experience through a ten-year partnership between The University of Adelaide, Cook Medical LLC, and Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. He has initiated a previous start-up, ART Lab Solutions Pty Ltd., and he was the commercialisation champion within the Robinson Research Institute.
Jeremy is a Fellow of the Society for Reproductive Biology, and in 2016, he was awarded its highest honor, The Founders Lecture. He holds a PhD in Veterinary Anatomy (Reproduction) from the University of Queensland.
Professor David Gardner is a globally recognised IVF pioneer with considerable commercial experience in human ART, having developed the most successful culture system for the human embryo (G1/G2) and commercialized this system with Vitrolife AB in the late 1990s.
He is a Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor at the School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, and has served as the Scientific Director of Melbourne IVF since 2017. David has made vast contributions to the field of reproductive biology, which were recognized in both his 2017 election into the Australian Academy of Science and his winning of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine’s highest honor, the Distinguished Researcher Award. In June 2022 he was named a Member of the Order of Australia for Service to Reproductive Medicine and Education.
He has authored more than 300 publications, and he continues to lead innovation in human IVF. As the Scientific Director of Melbourne IVF, he has run successful clinical trials in both embryo culture and the use of artificial intelligence in IVF.
David is a Fellow of the Society for Reproductive Biology and holds a PhD in Biological Sciences from the University of York, UK.
Roger Yerramsetti has more than 20 years of experience leading operational, innovation, and technology departments at ASX 100 companies, startups, and early-stage companies.
Roger has been working with Fertilis since 2019 when he began assessing and validating commercial opportunities, creating financial models, and proposing incremental prototype delivery to de-risk the business. He is a critical and creative thinker who solves business challenges by looking at them from multiple angles while staying close to the needs of the end user.
Hanna McLennan is leading the Adelaide-based embryological scientific discovery team.
Hanna completed a transdisciplinary project bridging across Reproductive Biology, Chemistry, and Physics as a PhD student of the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics.
Hanna completed a transdisciplinary project bridging across Reproductive Biology, Chemistry, and Physics as a PhD student of the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics.
With nine publications to her name, she is continuing her career with collaborations across disciplines within Fertilis to transition new discoveries to exciting applications within the IVF clinic.She holds a PhD in Medicine (Reproductive Biology) from the University of Adelaide.
microICSI is designed to make intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) suction-free, simpler and more controlled, with fewer manipulations and less time under the microscope.
microBiopsy is a purpose-designed approach to blastocyst biopsy designed to improve procedural consistency while reducing technical burden across operators.
