Setting Up A New IVF Laboratory
There's a moment, usually about six months into a new build, when a clinic realizes the floor plan they signed off on isn't going to work. The OR is too far from the embryology bench. The HVAC chase is in the wrong wall. The dewars don't fit through the loading dock. Fixing it costs ten times what asking the right question at the start would have.
This guide is built around the questions we'd want a clinic to ask first — whether you're sketching your first lab, opening a second site, or upgrading a facility that has quietly outgrown itself. If you'd like a sounding board on any of it, our service team is happy to walk it through with you.
Educational disclaimer: This material is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not a substitute for laboratory-specific policies, physician direction, manufacturer instructions for use, regulatory requirements, or professional judgment. Each laboratory is responsible for validating its own procedures, training its personnel, and ensuring compliance with all applicable accreditation, legal, and regulatory standards.
Twelve Questions Every New IVF Lab Should Answer First
Use this as a starting framework, not a finish line. Each item links to deeper resources if you want to go further.
— The decision you can't easily undo. Embryos lack the detoxification machinery that protects adult cells, so they react to airborne contaminants at concentrations far below any limit set for humans. If you can smell the freeway from the parking lot, your embryos can too. Avoid neighbors that emit volatiles — freeways, dry cleaners, auto-body shops, print operations — and test for VOCs, particulates, and microbial contamination before you sign the lease. Remediation after build-out is painfully expensive and not always possible.
— The first time you take an oocyte from the OR to the embryology bench, you'll know whether your floor plan was designed by someone who has done this work or someone who hasn't. Adjacency between the OR and the lab is the single biggest favor you can do your team on retrieval days. Map zones to the actual flow of gametes and embryos rather than to administrative convenience, and budget roughly 30% more storage and bench space than you think you need — clinics outgrow their footprint within five years almost without exception. [The coLABorative — Laboratory Design, Construction and Commissioning Services]
— Your HVAC system does more work than any single piece of equipment in the lab. HEPA filters strip particulates; activated-carbon banks scrub the VOCs that HEPA misses entirely. Aim for at least 10–15 air changes per hour, positive pressure with cascading differentials so air flows from clean spaces toward dirty ones, and continuous monitoring of temperature, humidity, and CO2. By the time an alarm fires on a temperature drift, the cohort in the incubator already knows about it. [Air Purification Systems]
— The smell of fresh paint is the smell of VOCs. Carpet, particle board, vinyl with PVC plasticizers, standard adhesives, and conventional latex paints can pollute lab air for weeks or months after move-in. Specify low-VOC everywhere: seamless welded sheet-vinyl floors, low-VOC latex on the walls, sealed wipeable ceilings, Corian or Trespa countertops, metal cabinetry. In cryo rooms, choose flooring rated to take repeated LN2 spills without crazing — you'll be wiping up nitrogen drips for the life of the facility. [The coLABorative — Project Management Services]
— There is a 100% chance you will lose power someday. The only question is whether your incubators notice. Specify gas manifolds with auto-switchover, UPS units on alarm units, incubators and micromanipulation stations, and emergency power/a generator sized to carry incubators, freezers, alarms, and enough lighting and HVAC to keep working through the outage. Doors and corridors must accommodate a full-size dewar; 36-inch minimum doorways and loading-dock access are non-negotiable. Undersized openings are one of the most common — and most expensive — mistakes in lab construction. [The coLABorative — Project Management Services]
— The crates arrive on a Tuesday. The validation takes six weeks. Plan accordingly. Lead times have stretched: incubators, micromanipulators, and time-lapse systems can be six months or more out from order, so build your equipment list during architectural design (not after) so power, gas, network, and bench cutouts are right the first time. We help clinics stage this so opening day means calibrated and validated equipment — not a stack of crates. [IVF Store Equipment Planning Services]
— You can buy any incubator on the market. You cannot buy a senior embryologist with three months' notice. Hiring is the quietest constraint on your opening date, and a poor hire shows up in fertilization rates rather than in interviews. Cross-train so no single role is fragile, invest in ergonomics (most embryology days involve hours bent over an inverted scope), and budget for continuing education from day one. The field moves quickly; last decade's protocol is this decade's underperformance. [The coLABorative — Staffing & Administrative Support]
— What isn't measured drifts. Build your QMS before your first cycle, not after your first audit. SOPs should be specific enough that a competent embryologist can perform the procedure without asking questions — vague SOPs are a tell that no one is actually following them. Log obsessively: environmental conditions, calibrations, cleanings, media lots, gas changes, cryo inventory. Most lab problems aren't dramatic single-point failures; they're slow trends you only catch by reviewing the data. [The coLABorative — Auditing / Assessment / Consultation Services]
— Every cryotank in your facility represents money, time, and families. Treat them accordingly. Restrict access electronically, log every entry, and keep gamete and embryo storage separate from staff belongings. Equip work areas with the right PPE; place hand-washing stations where people naturally pass through, not tucked in a corner. Route sharps and biohazard streams so they never cross gamete-handling paths. [The coLABorative — Auditing / Assessment / Consultation Services]
— This is where catastrophic loss lives. Tank failures rarely announce themselves; without effective monitoring, late alarms can mean the difference between saving the day and disaster. Ideally use validated dewars with continuous level and temperature monitoring, keep a full backup tank ready at all times, and write an emergency transfer protocol your staff have actually rehearsed. Layered monitoring — vacuum-loss detection, thermographic add-ons — is cheap insurance against losing an entire dewar of embryos. [The coLABorative — Auditing / Assessment / Consultation Services]
— Permits before drywall. Get familiar with FDA, ESHRE, CAP, and state-level requirements before you finalize floor plans, because retrofitting for compliance is brutal. Patient data falls under HIPAA — design your systems for it from day one. Keep documentation in the state where an inspector could walk in tomorrow; that's also the state where you can find anything quickly when you need to. [The coLABorative — Auditing / Assessment / Consultation Services]
— The lab is invisible to patients. The waiting room is not. Warm lighting, sound-absorbing surfaces, separate seating for partners and families, and accessible facilities all communicate care before a clinician says a word. Give your staff somewhere real to decompress — IVF is emotionally heavy work, and a proper break room (not a corner of the lab) is part of staff retention. [The coLABorative — Scientific Director Services]
Supplies and Equipment List
A working catalog of the consumables, media, and equipment most new IVF labs need to actually start running cycles — organized by workflow so you can build out one station at a time. Click any product to see options in our store. This isn't exhaustive, but it covers the spine of a functioning andrology and embryology operation.
Oocyte Retrieval
The opening act. Get the dish, the temperature, and the timing right and the rest of the cycle has a chance. Get them wrong and nothing downstream can fully recover it.
Consumables
60mm IVF-Certified Dishes
BIRR 60mm Dish
Vitrolife 60mm Dish
Nunc 60mm Dish
90mm IVF-Certified Dishes
Vitrolife 90mm Dish
BIRR 90mm Dish
Nunc 90mm Dish
Tubes
BIRR 14 ml Tubes
Vitrolife 14 ml Tubes
Pipettes
Glass Pasteur Pipettes
Pipette Bulbs
Media
ARTSMedia Denmark IVF-1 Universal Media
ARTSMedia Denmark High Viscosity Oil
Equipment
ESCO Multizone Workstation
Warming Block
Glass Workstation Incubators
Gas Washing Bottle
Silicone Tubing
Pipette Rack
Incubators
Box Type (Large)
Box Type (Small)
Drawer Type
Time Lapse
Bench Top (Small)
Bench Top (Large)
Miscellaneous
Sharps Boxes Here or Here
Gloves
Masks
Wipes
Surface Cleaner
Denudation (Hyaluronidase) & Stripping
Strip too aggressively and the oocyte is damaged. Too gently and you can't see the polar body. There is a feel to this that takes years to develop — and the right tools make it easier to learn.
Consumables
Center-Well Dishes (IVF-Certified)
BIRR Center-Well Dish
BIRR Center-Well Dish (Square)
Vitrolife Center-Well Dish (Square)
Nunc Center-Well Dish
Tips / Pipettes
DeNoody Tips [135, 150, 275] (currently awaiting 510(k) approval — for research use only at this time)
Glass Pasteur Pipettes
Pipette Bulbs
Pipette Tips
Media
Equipment
Stripper or Similar
Fixed or Adjustable Volume Pipettes
Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI)
Several minutes of intense focus per oocyte, scaled across a busy retrieval day. The dish, the pipettes, and the scope are the difference between a steady team and an exhausted one.
Consumables
Certified ICSI Dishes
Vitrolife ICSI Dish (Square)
BIRR ICSI Dish
Nunc ICSI Dish
Moving Gametes
DeNoody Tips [150] (currently awaiting 510(k) approval — for research use only at this time)
Glass Pasteur Pipettes
Pipette Bulbs
Pipette Tips
Microtools
Vitrolife Holding Pipette
Vitrolife Injection Pipette
Media
Nidacon SpermCatch
InVitroCare PVP
Equipment
Microscope and Micromanipulators
Pipette Rack
Tungsten-Carbide Pencil
Stripper or Similar
Fixed or Adjustable Volume Pipettes
Gradient Sperm Preparation
The workhorse of the andrology bench — well-understood, forgiving, and, for most cases, more than enough.
Consumables
Conical Tubes
Glass Pasteur Pipettes
Pipette Bulbs
BIRR Collection Cups
Vitrolife Collection Cups
Protex Collection Cup (At-Home Collection)
BIRR Serological Pipettes
Pipette Tips
Sperm Counting
Makler Sperm Counting Chamber
Cel-Vu Sperm Counting Chamber DRM-600
Vitrolife Microcell
Media
ARTSMedia Sperm Density Gradient
Nidacon PureSperm Density Gradient
Nidacon PureSperm Buffer
Nidacon PureSperm Wash
InVitroCare Sperm Preparation Kit
InVitroCare SpermCare Lower Layer
InVitroCare SpermCare Upper Layer
Equipment
Centrifuge
Pipette Rack
Pipet Controller
Fixed and Variable Volume Pipettors
Microscope
SwimCount® Harvester Sperm Preparation
Spinning sperm fragments DNA. For some patients, that matters a lot. This is the centrifuge-free path.
Consumables
SwimCount® Harvester
BIRR Collection Cups
Vitrolife Collection Cups
Protex Collection Cup (At-Home Collection)
Sperm Counting
Makler Sperm Counting Chamber
Cel-Vu Sperm Counting Chamber DRM-600
Vitrolife Microcell
Media
ARTSMedia Sperm Density Gradient
ARTSMedia Semen Wash Media
Nidacon PureSperm Wash
Equipment
Vitrification, Warming & Cryopreservation
Liquid nitrogen is not gentle. The right device, the right cooling rate, and the right discipline are what keep gametes recoverable years later. Mistakes here are usually unrecoverable.
Consumables
Vitrification Devices
S-Cryolock Devices
Cryolock Devices
Cryotec Devices
Tips
DeNoody Tips (currently awaiting 510(k) approval — for research use only at this time)
Cane & Goblet Storage Accessories
Cryo Canes
Tags for Cryo Canes
Goblets
Cryo Sleeves
Media
Cryotec Vitrification Media
Cryotec Warming Solution
Equipment
Stripper or Similar
Bucket for Nitrogen
Cryo Clamps
Cooling Box
VitaVitro Cooling Box
CryoTec Cooling Box
Cryo-Storage
Years — sometimes decades — of someone's family planning, sitting in a tank. Build like you mean it. Monitor everything. Assume failure will eventually happen, and design so it doesn't matter when it does.
Storage Vessels
phaseTwo Dewars
MVE Liquid Nitrogen Dewars
IC Biomedical Liquid Nitrogen Dewars
IVF Cryo One
Basic Monitoring
PharmaWatch
Boreas
SafePoint Scientific
Advanced Monitoring Add-On
CryoSentinel — adds redundancy, thermographic monitoring, and ultra-fast response to vacuum failure. Worth pricing in early; retrofitting after a near-miss is a stressful way to learn.
If you're at the napkin-sketch stage, the spec-sheet stage, or somewhere in between, we'd be glad to talk it through. Lab design, build-out, installation, validation, equipment servicing, or sourcing a single dish — reach out to our customer service team and we'll meet you wherever you are in the process.
