Automating Vitrification

Vitrification is a physical process whereby liquid is rapidly transformed into solid, amorphous glass, thus avoiding the risk of ice crystal formation responsible for cellular death. Like any new methodology, vitrification had a long historical experimental phase before being successfully applied to reproductive human cells and tissues. This chapter offers first a historical view of vitrification and then explores the modern applications of this technology and the key aspects to make it efficient, including the concept of minimal drop size for vitrification of oocytes. Importantly, there are still two main issues that need solution for vitrification to be widely adopted and reproducible: the difference in skills among embryologists and the time required to complete the process. To this end, we describe the automation of vitrification as an ideal strategy to overcome these shortcomings.