In a groundbreaking medical development, a baby has been born following a mostly automated in vitro fertilisation (IVF) procedure—a global first that may revolutionise fertility treatment.
The process, carried out by New York-based biotech company Conceivable Life Sciences, used a robot-assisted system to perform 23 critical steps of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), a method used to directly inject a sperm cell into an egg. A human supervised remotely and activated each step via livestream.
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Experts say automation could reduce human error and fatigue, two common challenges in manual ICSI procedures, which require extreme precision. The system also employed artificial intelligence to identify the most viable sperm and embryos for fertilisation and implantation.
Of eight donor eggs used in the trial, five were fertilised by the automated system and three manually. Remarkably, both embryos judged most viable by the AI were from the machine-assisted fertilisations, one of which successfully resulted in birth.
While hailed as a promising proof-of-concept, researchers stress the need for larger studies before widespread use. If proven effective, the technology could one day reshape fertility clinics and improve outcomes for couples worldwide.
