ART Lab Solutions is pleased to announce Founder Reflections where our founder, Jeremy Thompson, shares scientific updates, leadership insights, and reflections drawn from his extensive experience in the field of reproductive biotechnology.
Founder Reflections will offer a unique perspective on the innovations shaping cattle IVF, as well as the personal and professional experiences that have influenced ART Lab Solutions’ journey.
Animal IVF progress, problems and possibilities
“I started studying ruminant IVP in 1981, when I began my PhD on ram sperm capacitation and subsequent sheep oocyte fertilisation with the late Jim Cummins at The University of Queensland, Australia. At that time, no-one could get good fertilisation rates in sheep, and the impact of glycosaminoglycans, such as heparin and chondroitin sulphate for cattle IVF was just emerging from The University of Guelph, Wisconsin, USA (incidentally, neither of which helped our poor sheep IVF results). I’ve had an uninterrupted pursuit of developing IVP in ruminants, including 2 species of deer, as well as cattle and sheep.
At times, I reflect on what has changed over that time. Certainly, results have improved but there remain challenges in obtaining high and consistent fertilisation rates between individual bulls and cows. Why do some bulls fail to provide good IVF results, even if their AI results are normal?
There is good background knowledge about polyamines and the need for their removal, the importance protein tyrosine phosphorylation for capacitation to occur, plus role of reactive oxygen species, etc. But can we develop an assay that prospectively assesses IVF capacity and if poor, tell us what is needed to improve results? Now that would be something!”
Written By: Prof. Jeremy Thompson.