When Dr. Alejandro Chávez-Badiola speaks of his work, his words merge two worlds rarely united: the hardness of science and empathy of human emotion. “My life mission is to help people who dream of forming a family, bringing healthy children to the world,” he says.
For decades, in vitro fertilization (IVF), a treatment awarded with the Nobel Prize, has represented a great medical advance, but remains an exclusive service, beyond the reach of the majority of those who face infertility (1 in 6 adults). Today, 95% remain without treatment, either because of the cost or lack of access, which has made IVF, into practice, an elite treatment reserved for people with greater economic resources.
Dr. Chávez-Badiola, co-founder and Medical Director of Conceivable Life Sciences, founder of Hope IVF Mexico, and one of the main global fertility specialists, trusts that with the innovative use of automation and artificial intelligence, it can convert in vitro fertilization into an accessible health alternative for all people who need it.
A visionary tapatío leads the global transformation of the IVF
In Mexico, where family is the axis of social and cultural life, Alejandro saw very painful how painful infertility can be. “As a Mexican, I am proud to lead a technology that will help millions of couples in the world to conceive,” he says.
His inexhaustible curiosity led him, in 2017, to a decisive finding. While studying Bayesian models and artificial intelligence, he realized that computer vision and robotics could revolutionize in vitro fertilization, from the microscope.
Shortly after at a dinner in London, he met Alan Murray, then executive director of TMRW Life Sciences, a company specialized in giving security and transparency to the storage of ovules and embryos through automation. Both talked about how to integrate the pioneering use of AI with process automation. “That dialogue made us see that we could merge automation, robotics and advanced optics to completely reinvent the IVF laboratory,” the doctor recalled.
This conversation inspired the creation of a conceable and the development of Aura: the first in vitro fertilization laboratory fully automated and enhanced by artificial intelligence. The idea that began as revelation became a project capable of changing the future of fertility.
Aura: where science and hope converge
Aura is more than a laboratory, it is a revolution. For decades, IVF Laboratories have depended on manual and artisanal processes that represent enormous variability and lead to inconsistent results for infertile patients. The novel system has the potential to transform this by integrating AI, robotics and advanced optics to automate more than 200 critical steps necessary to create a blastocyst (fertilized ovule) with a level of consistency and impossible precision with human hands and eyes.
In traditional laboratories, in vitro fertilization falls to embryologists: highly trained specialists who face highly demanding and stressful work. Aura does not seek to replace them, but to maximize their ability to achieve more pregnancies. For its operation, a specialized team composed of three people is required: a senior embriologist, an engineer and a laboratory technician.
Thanks to automation, this team can work with greater precision and efficiency. “The promise of Automation in IVF is not only about efficiency, but about possibility,” explains Chávez-Badiola. “Each cell manipulated by Aura receives the same care and the same precision, with the aim of optimizing the probabilities of pregnancy. This is how conceable will allow those who face infertility, to make the dream of being parents into a reality,” he said.
Automation also solves one of the main barriers: the scale. By reducing variability and decreasing costs, Aura seeks to expand access to in vitro fertilization, transforming it from a luxury into a medical care standard.
“Automation is the great democratizer in medical care,” said Chávez-Badiola. When integrating AI and Robotics into IVF, it is consensible eliminates cost and geography barriers, ideally guaranteeing greater access to fertility treatments. “We are bringing the best care in fertility care to many, not to a select circle,” he added.
Mexico to the center of innovation
The success of conceable is also a reason for national pride. After a concept proof study using prototype instruments, it achieved results equivalent to those of the main fertility clinics in the world, registering 18 healthy babies. Now, together with his partners Hope IVF and Queen Madre, a consensible one is carrying out a pilot study with 100 patients in Mexico City.
In addition, the company recognizes the valuable Mexican Stem talent, since it operates a center of Research and Development In Guadalajara, made up of some of the most outstanding engineers, embryologists and physicists in the country.
Conceivable innovation was recently supported by a series A financing for 50 million dollars. With this, the total capital raised amounts to 70 million dollars, becoming the biotechnology startup with the greatest financing in Latin America.
“This investment is a milestone, not only for consensible, but for the entire Mexican biotechnology industry,” said Chávez-Badiola. “It is a sign for Mexican investors about the enormous potential that exists here at home, and an opportunity to support a history of national success that is ready to revolutionize IVF treatments globally.”
The human side of technology
While Aura combines avant-garde technology with an award-winning biology, Chávez-Badiola’s vision goes beyond science. “Behind every hard data that reflects a positive change thanks to Aura, there are real people with dreams and hopes that are being accompanied to fulfill the desire to have a baby,” he explains. For him, the numbers only make sense when they transform into transformed lives and created families.
What began as the spark of curiosity of a man for AI is now about to become a global movement, one that could bring the attention of fertility to millions of people for those who were previously out of reach.
For Chávez-Badiola, it is the culmination of science, empathy and vision. “I evaluate each new approach through a fundamental question: will this do that fertility attention is more accessible, more effective or more compassionate? With Aura, the answer to the three is yes.”
The contents signed as content are the exclusive responsibility of the brands and their spokesmen or agents. The information contained here is exposed merely informative and does not constitute an investment recommendation, or invitation, offer or application by Forbes Mexico.
