Auxogyn Raises $20 Million

Auxogyn Inc., a Menlo Park startup aimed at helping in vitro fertilization clinics select fertilized eggs with the best chances to survive inside the mother, closed the final tranche of a $20 million Series A financing. Spun out of the Stanford University lab of Renee Reijo Pera, Auxogyn’s algorithm-based Eeva system is designed to help IVF clinics place embryos into mothers on the third day after fertilization, rather than day five. A study by Pera’s lab said that the fate of human embryos is determined by the time the embryo splits into four cells — on day three — which is before the mother’s gene expression is turned off and the embryonic genome is turned on. Placing the best fertilized embryos in the mother earlier gives the embryo a better chance of surviving in the mother, according to Auxogyn.

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