THE world's first baby conceived by a sperm-injecting robot has been born.
A 40-year-old woman who'd struggled to get pregnant through IVF to the tot, with the helping hand of an AI-operated machine.
One method of IVF is intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), where a single sperm cell is injected into mature eggs in a lab dish.
This process was developed in the 1990s and is now widely used – in cases of male infertility, as it means the sperm don't have to swim to reach an egg.
Any resulting embryos are then inserted into the uterus.
Another way to is by mixing them with sperm in a lab dish.
This method requires less medical intervention but is less precise, so it's generally less successful.
But the process of ICS – individually injecting into eggs – can fall victim to human error too.
ICSI procedures are performed manually by skilled embryologists using microinjection systems.
They require a high level of precision and studies have shown performance by the ICSI embryologists can vary significantly between individuals.
Jacques Cohen at Conceivable Life Sciences, a biotech company in City, told New Scientist: “They become tired and distracted sometimes, just like everybody else in most professions, so errors happen that can reduce [the] odds of fertilisation and births.”
To address this, Dr Cohen and his colleagues developed a machine that can perform the 23 key steps required for the standard ICSI procedure.
The machine can be operated independently by artificial intelligence (AI) control or through the press of a button.
One step involves the machine using an AI model to select the healthiest sperm cells for fertilisation, based on their appearance.
Next, the machine makes sperm easier to pick up by zapping their tails with a laser and immobilising them, before injecting the sperm into already-collected eggs.
Lead engineer Professor Gerardo Mendizabal-Ruiz, said: “With AI, the system autonomously selects sperm and precisely immobilises its midsection with a laser ready for injection – executing this rapid, precise process with a level of accuracy beyond human capability.”
AI is used to position the sperm cell in the injection pipette and jab it into the egg.
This ICSI system is the only one to automate every single step of the microinjection procedure, with the additional steps of sperm handling and selection done by AI.
Dr Cohen said automation of the ICSI process “represents a transformative solution that promises to enhance precision, improve efficiency, and ensure consistent outcomes” – taking the burden off human operators and ensure less variability in procedures.
The automated process might also improve egg survival and optimise timing of the injection, he added.
To put their machine to the test, researchers recruited a 40-year-old woman referred for treatment with donor eggs at an IVF clinic in Guadalajara, , following a previously unsuccessful IVF attempt.
The woman had difficulty producing eggs, so a donor one was used, while her partner's sperm couldn't swim properly.
Five eggs were fertilised with the automated ICSI, and three served as controls as they had sperm injected with standard manual ICSI.
The automated system was set up at the clinic, but the scientists operated the machine remotely – from the Guadalajara clinic and New York – issuing commands via a digital interface to perform each of the 23 micro-injection steps for each egg.
Overall, the entire procedure took an average of 9 minutes 56 seconds per egg, a little longer than routine manual ICSI because of its experimental nature.
But Prof Mendizabal-Ruiz said “we expect to reduce procedure time significantly”.
Four of the five injected eggs in the automated system reached normal fertilisation and all three in the manual control group.
The team inserted one of the AI-produced embryos into the woman’s uterus, but it failed to develop.
However, the second resulted in the of a boy.
Joyce Harper at University College described the study as exciting but told New Scientist that larger studies that randomly assign couples to undergo either the automated or the manual lCSI procedure are needed to establish whether this new approach leads to more successful births.
Automated IVF is also unlikely to be widely used for a while as it's much more expensive, she added.
But Dr Cohen said he expects the cost of the procedure to dip as they refine the process.
