FAQs
Patients can move their oocytes/embryos to TMRW’s cryobank located in New York City. New York state has received a grade of A- to RESOLVE, the National infertility Institutes’s Fertility Scorecard. This means that New York has some of the best fertility protection laws in the country.
A cryobank or biorepository is a facility that collects, catalogs, and stores biological specimens - in this case your oocyles and embryos. The purpose of a cryobank is to store and maintain these specimens, often on a long-term basis.
TMRW’s cryobank is located on the ground floor in a LEED-compliant facilty (LEED certification is a globally recognized symbol of sustainabilty achievement and leadership) and is an off-site fertility specimen management solution featuring TMRW’s proprietary, cutting-edge technology for the secure storage, tracking, monitoring, and safekeeping of irreplaceable frozen oocytes and embryos.
TMRW’s technology is currently being utilized in fertility clinics across the country and is quickly becoming the standard of care for the management of precious fertility cells. Current customers of TMRW attest to sleeping better knowing that TMRW’s platform - powered by technology and automation - significantly reduce the risk of human error.
Central to TMRW’s promise is its state-of-the-art radio frequency identification (RFID) technology which replaces outdated analog and manual systems. We automate the unique identification, tracking and tracing of all specimens, whether they are in a TMRW-enabled clinic or in our cryobank.
TMRW’s equipment is supported by 24/7 remote monitoring via TMRW’s Overwatch TM technology - ensuring that temperature, liquid nitrogen levels, and equipment performance remain within optimal ranges at all times.
These advanced and proactive safeguards, in addition to TMRW’s triply redundant labeling system (incorporating RFID technology, scannable and human readable barcodes), qualify TMRW cryobank well beyond standard NY State Tissue Bank requirements.
TMRW cryobank NY is staffed by nationally recognized biobanking experts, embryologists, and quality assurance professionals. TMRW’s NY cryobank is led by Robert Perkinson, our TIssue Bank Director, a cryogenic expert with over 20 years of GLP and GMP experience gained at leading Fortune 500 companies. He has a proven track record of using innovation and automation to improve the integrity, chain-of-custody, and secure storage of specimens under his watch. Prior to joining TMRW, Robert led the Global Biological Archiving team at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). At TMRW’s cryobank, Robert directs a concerted and conscientious effort to fundamentally change how precious fertility cells are managed, including how they are identified, stored, retrieved, and tracked.
Overseeing the day-to-day operations, is Keylena Spies, our Operations Managers. She is an embryologist with over 10 years of laboratory experience. Prior to joining TMRW, Kaylena worked as a clinical embryologist and most recently directed the laboratory at the SVF Foundation in Newport, RI - partnering with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute to cryopreserve and catalog germplasm from rate and endangered species of livestock. At TMRW, Kaylena is responsible for managing daily operations at the biorepository, ensuring the safety of specimens as they are transferred into and out of the TMRW platform, and maintaining the cryobank’s environmental conditions at optimal specifications for equipment performance.
TMRW's cryobank was built from the ground up with the safety and security of your oocytes/embryos as its first and only priority. Our technology ensures that your specimens are uniquely identified, tracked and monitored 24/7 by our entire team. Granted, moving your oocytes/embryos to TMRW’s cryobank is something you should discuss with your fertility specialist, but TMRW has developed a new, higher standard of care and we believe that patients should have a choice in how and where their precious specimens are cared for.
Absolutely. It has been industry standard to safely and routinely ship frozen oocytes/embryos between clinical sites and storage facilities since the 1980s. Fertility centers conventionally transport cryopreserved specimens within a special shipping container called a vapor shipper. Vapor shippers are ideally suited for the transportation of cryobiological materials. Liquid nitrogen is retained in an absorbent material and the cold nitrogen vapors maintain the cryo storage area below -150°C.
By phone at 1-866-719-2441 -or- by email at bior-nyc@tmrw.org
As soon as you indicate to TMRW that you are interested in initiating transfer of your specimens from your clinic to TMRW’s cryobank, TMRW will provide you with an easy-to-follow, step-by-step process via email to set up your account and guide you through the process. The TMRW cryobank patient care team will also be accessible to you throughout every step in your journey, should you run into any difficulty navigating the process.
TMRW will guide you through the shipping process, helping you coordinate directly with your fertility center. Ensuring your specimens arrive on time and safely is our top priority.
The patient covers the transportation costs for their specimens to travel to TMRW Biorepository and then, if and when desired, back to a fertility center for IVF treatment.
Once your specimens enter the TMRW ecosystem (are received by our team), each cryo-device is checked against your fertility laboratory records and then logged into the system. Each cryo-device is assigned a unique identifier, digitally linked to a CryoBeacon (RFID enabled) and then loaded into one of our CryoRobots. All of these activities are automatically recorded and attached to each specimen's record - ensuring visibility, traceability and accountability for your precious specimens.
Your specimens will then be looked after by TMRW’s human staff and the TMRW Overwatch technology.
TMRW Overwatch is an automated, 24/7 system that continuously monitors the health and performance of the CryoRobots in the cryobank. We built this system so that we can detect and proactively investigate slight deviations before they become actual problems. We're always on call and our teams are extensively trained to ensure your specimens stay safe.
No visitors are allowed. TMRW Biorepository is a secure facility to maintain specimen safety. Access to the cryobank is strictly controlled and limited to authorized TMRW Biorepository staff. You can rest assured that your precious cells are monitored 24/7 for safety and security.
Should you wish to send your fertility specimens back to your clinic for treatment, simply notify TMRW [1-866-719-2441 or bior-nyc@tmrw.org] and we will initiate the transfer process. TMRW’s cryobank team will coordinate the shipment preparation, transfer, and tracking of the requested specimens.
The cost is $600 annually (just $50 per month) to store your fertility specimens at TMRW’s cryobank - regardless of specimen quantity. Discounts are available if prepaying for multiple years of storage.