Patent ID: 7202395

Claim:
A method of assessing the ability of a mammalian pre-implantation embryo to develop to a blastocyst stage and/or be successfully implanted, said method comprising: (i) incubating the mammalian pre-implantation embryo in a culture medium comprising a plurality of amino acids; (ii) determining an increase or decrease in concentration of at least one amino acid in the culture medium to determine amino acid turnover, wherein said at least one amino acid is selected from the group consisting of alanine, arginine, glutamine, glycine, leucine, methionine, asparagine and serine, as compared to pre-culture medium; (iii) selecting a pre-implantation embryo in the culture medium of step ii; wherein said culture medium has a higher or lower concentration of at least one of said at least one amino acids, and wherein the pre-implantation embryo of step (iii) has an increased possibility of development to the blastocyst stage and/or successful implantation.