The First Babies Born from Sperm Robot, Marks Fertility Breakthrough
- New York Post
VIVA – The first babies ever made with a sperm-injecting robot reportedly were born healthy, marking a breakthrough in fertility treatment.
The procedure was carried out at the New Hope Fertility Center in New York City using a remote-controlled needle and a camera to insert sperm cells into eggs.
The technology could potentially reduce the cost of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) by eliminating the need for highly-paid embryologists.
The company has filed a patent application for a “biochip” for IVF labs, which features hidden reservoirs containing growth fluids and channels for sperm to swim through.
However, some experts are skeptical that robotics will reduce costs or increase pregnancy rates, as they do not solve the issue of aging eggs, which is a major reason fertility treatments fail.
Despite this, many fertility specialists agree that IVF robots are inevitable in the future.
Cumulatively, the robot successfully fertilized more than a dozen eggs that developed into healthy embryos and have now been born as two baby girls with scientists claiming them to be the first babies born after fertilization by a "robot" or also dubbed "robot sperm".
"I was calm. Right at that moment, I thought, 'It's just one more experiment,'" said Eduard Alba, the mechanical engineering student who led the sperm injection device.
"It's wild, isn't it?" said one of the baby's fathers, who asked not to be named. "Until now it has always been done manually," he added.
The fertility breakthrough involves using remote-controlled needles and cameras to penetrate eggs in petri dishes, potentially eliminating the need for high-priced embryologists, according to the report.
The technology could one day eliminate the need for patients to visit fertility clinics, where a single attempt to conceive can cost US$20,000 in the US, said Santiago Munné, chief geneticist of Spanish company Overture Life, which developed the sperm robot.
