Ovo Labs, a pioneering biotechnology company from Oberschleißheim/Munich, has presented first-time efficacy data for its lead therapeutic EmbryoProtect 1 (EP1) at the UK’s largest fertility conference, Fertility 2026. The results mark a breakthrough in reproductive medicine: EP1 has been shown to significantly improve the quality of human eggs obtained during standard IVF procedures. This potentially marksa turning point for in vitro fertilization (IVF), especially in older women.
In a pre-clinical study involving over 100 eggs from patients aged 22 to 43, treatment with EmbryoProtect 1 increased the proportion of viable eggs from approximately 47% to around 71%. If confirmed in clinical trials, this effect could translate to an additional one million babies being born through IVF each year globally - potentially the most significant leap in IVF success rates in decades.
One of the biggest challenges in IVF is the sharp decline in egg quantity and quality with increasing maternal age. By age 40, over 70% of a woman’s eggs are believed to be chromosomally abnormal (aneuploid), resulting in infertility, miscarriages, or conditions such as Down syndrome.
Prof. Melina Schuh, Director at the Max Planck Institute and Co-Founder of Ovo Labs, explains: “Women do not produce new eggs in adulthood and must instead rely on the limited reserve established before birth. Because eggs are some of the fastest-ageing cells in the human body, signs of egg ageing can already be detected in women in their early 30s. This accelerates even further by the time a woman reaches her 40s. With the age of aspiring parents continuing to increase worldwide and more people needing the help of IVF to conceive, this is already a worrying and stressful process. Couples often undergo several rounds of gruelling and invasive IVF without the odds of success improving.
“The initial results of our pre-clinical study, led by a Postdoctoral Scientist Dr Debojit Saha with support of Dr Saba Manshaei (now Head of Development at Ovo Labs), show that EmbryoProtect can intervene to successfully reverse damage caused by ageing which would make IVF more effective for all couples, but particularly in women of advanced reproductive age. While egg rejuvenation has been successfully carried out in model organisms before, this is the first time it’s been undertaken using human eggs in vitro.”
The pre-clinical study, led by Dr. Debojit Saha and supported by Dr. Saba Manshaei (now Head of Development at Ovo Labs), showed that EP1 can reverse aging-related damage in eggs. While egg rejuvenation has been previously achieved in model organisms, Ovo Labs is the first to demonstrate it in vitro using human eggs.
Dr. Agata Zielinska, Ovo Labs co-CEO added: “We’ve been hugely encouraged by the results from this study and the next step would be to complete the required safety and toxicity studies in-house at our fully-established research facility to enable the first clinical trials. We would then be able to bring EmbryoProtect to patients, effectively extending the female reproductive age span.”
Prof. Antonio Pellicer, founder of IVIRMA, the world’s largest IVF clinic network, added: “For decades, we have understood that poor egg quality is the main reason IVF often fails – especially in women over 35 – but we have had no way to address this. What Ovo Labs is doing with EmbryoProtect is scientifically grounded and could not be more clinically relevant. If validated in clinical trials, it has the potential to deliver the biggest improvement in IVF success rates we have seen in decades”.
Ovo Labs was founded in 2025 by Prof. Melina Schuh, Dr. Agata Zielinska, and Dr. Oleksandr Yagensky with the mission to transform infertility treatment through therapeutics that restore and enhance egg quality. The company builds on more than 20 years of pioneering research from Prof. Schuh’s lab, whose discoveries—published in Science, Cell, and Nature—uncovered the mechanisms of egg aging and ways to correct them. This research now underpins the EmbryoProtect pipeline, which is advancing toward clinical application.