Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART)

The Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) Laboratory at the University of Michigan Center for Reproductive Medicine features modern facilities with state-of-the-art equipment to ensure the best possible care when it comes to handling your gametes and embryos. The laboratory was founded at the University of Michigan in 1984 and later moved from the main University hospital located campus in 2005 to help accommodate the growing program, as well as continue our goal of improving patient care. This move enabled the ART laboratory to expand and upgrade its complex, providing you with the absolute best care as you begin your family. Today, we still carry on the rich tradition of the program and the goal of the new ART laboratory continues to be to provide effective fertility therapy in a patient-friendly and cost-effective setting.

Pioneers in ART

Technician looking into microscope

Members of the ART laboratory at the University of Michigan are truly pioneers in the field. Lab members are responsible for several important publications and key technologies aimed at improving efficiency of IVF. Examples of these achievements include instrumental roles in the design, testing and implementation of a widely used vitrification system used for both eggs and embryos. This technology is now widely used by the entire IVF community Additionally, members of the ART lab have developed novel media used to handle gametes and embryos that is commercially available and used worldwide. As a result, ART lab members are routinely asked to speak at seminars and conferences around the world aimed at educating other lab professionals on advancements within the field and methods to improve their laboratory success. This experience and track record demonstrates our commitment to the advancement and improvement of assisted reproductive techniques and should assure you that you are receiving the best possible care.

Technician working with lab equipment

Services

The ART laboratory offers a wide variety of services aimed at assessing your fertility and helping you start your family.

Andrology Laboratory

  • Complete semen analysis
  • Antisperm antibody testing
  • Retrograde semen analysis
  • Sperm Cryopreservation
  • Fertility preservation for cancer patients
  • IUI sperm preparation
  • Donor Sperm Insemination
  • Testicular Sperm Extraction: TESE
  • MicroTESE

In Vitro Fertilization Laboratory

  • Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection: ICSI
  • PICSI
  • Laser assisted hatching
  • Low oxygen blastocyst culture
  • Frozen blastocyst transfer
  • Ultrasound-guided embryo transfer
  • Biopsy for Preimplantation Genetic Screening or Diagnosis (PGS/PGD)
  • Blastocyst Vitrification
  • Oocyte vitrification
  • Fertility preservation (Fertile Hope participant)
  • Donor Eggs
  • Elective single embryo transfer

Quality and Safety

  • The entire laboratory staff is specially-trained and possess many years of experience in all phases of laboratory therapeutic intervention for infertility...over 60 years of combined ART lab experience
  • Our andrology, endocrinology and embryology labs are secured to ensure only approved personnel have access, maintaining safety of equipment and patient materials.
  • Our building is outfitted with a generator to ensure no interruption in care due to power outages. These precautions allows us to offer the patient peace-of-mind as we perform our full array of andrology, endocrinology and embryology procedures.
  • Rest-assured you are receiving top quality treatment and the laboratory facilities and protocols are inspected and certified by the federal government, under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA) and by the College of American Pathologists Laboratory Accreditation Program (CAP) for ART laboratories. Additionally, the CRM is a member program of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) and, thus follows the practice guidelines established by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) for IVF programs. We are also inspected by the FDA. The ART laboratory has passed all inspections by these regulatory agencies.

More information regarding the ART laboratory and its approaches can be found in the FAQ manual. Additional questions concerning the ART laboratory can be directed to [email protected].