Bourn Hall Supports Medical Research for Pre-clinical Study exploring Human Egg Rejuvenation

A new pre-clinical study has given hope to the possibility of human egg rejuvenation which may one day provide a boost to IVF success rates for many, especially for persons in their late 30s and 40s for whom egg quality is often a concern.

A pre-clinical study by the Max Planck Institute with over 100 eggs collected following IVF procedures, showed that it was possible to increase the proportion of viable, high-quality eggs from about 47 % to around 71 % in women between the ages of 22-43. If these results hold up in clinical studies, it could one day boost IVF success rates worldwide.

Prof. Melina Schuh of the Max Planck Institute disclosed this first-ever data in a preprint publication, showing that restoring shugoshin 1 – a specific protein that decreases with age – can significantly improve the quality of human eggs in laboratory conditions. This is important as decades of research have shown that egg quality declines with age, and poor egg quality is a major factor that contributes to poorer outcomes in IVF procedures.

This work was presented at the Fertility 2026 conference in Edinburgh, Scotland and has been well received as a possible breakthrough for improving IVF success rates, pending safety checks and clinical trials. Ovo Labs, a startup co-founded by Melina Schuh, has licensed this technology and will develop it for clinical trials as EmbryoProtect 1.

The eggs in question used in this groundbreaking study were provided by clients of Bourn Hall, as the clinic gives patients the choice of donating eggs that are unsuitable for IVF to scientific research, in a bid to help advance the science of reproductive medicine in the future.

Dr Thanos Papathanasiou, CEO and Medical Director of Bourn Hall Clinics shared, “That Bourn Hall facilitated the eggs for this research is evidence of it being an organization that promotes high-level, quality research which can help to advance our understanding of IVF and assisted reproduction techniques. We know that 1 in 5 women having IVF today is over the age of 40, largely due to major life events happening later, and we know that IVF success rates are significantly impacted by age. The hope is that research such as this can one day improve success rates in these cases. Of course, this is all based on the outcome of further study and clinical trials, before it can become available in fertility clinics.”

Prof. Schuh has also confirmed that much more rigorous study is needed before human trials can take place. She shared the following note: “Before we can begin planning any patient recruitment for a clinical study intended for human pregnancy, we must complete rigorous laboratory safety testing and receive approvals from the relevant regulatory authorities. These processes exist to safeguard any future human use of prospective treatments and while they can certainly take time, we firmly believe they must be carried out thoroughly and without shortcuts.”

Despite not being immediately available for patients, this research is nevertheless important as it advances our knowledge in the field of IVF and provides hope that one day we might see improved outcomes because of its contribution.

If you would like to read the pre-print of this study, please click here to read it in full.