New 'sperm robot' technology could save patients thousands of dollars in IVF breakthrough

IVF could be set for a shake-up, after engineers tested out 'sperm robots' which they say have the potential to shave thousands from the cost of procedures.

According to the MIT Technology Review, two babies have already been born using the technology.

Last year engineers from Barcelona travelled to the New Hope Fertility Center in New York, where they assembled a kit with a microscope, mechanised needle, petri dish and a laptop.

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According to the MITTR, an engineer then used a PlayStation 5 controller to position the needle, before it then worked unassisted to inseminate an egg with a single sperm cell, before continuing to fertilize another 11 eggs.

"I was calm. In that exact moment, I thought, 'It's just one more experiment'," the student mechanical engineer who performed the procedure, Eduard Alba, told MITTR.

It's reported two baby girls have since been born using embryos from the experiment.

Currently, this procedure is performed by embryologists who inseminate eggs under a microscope, but by automating this part of IVF could potentially shave thousands from the cost, the publication quoted the start-up company behind the tech, Overture Life, as stating.

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Three embryos were used from this trial, resulting in the two successful pregnancies, according to a synopsis written by Overture and New Hope.

MITTR spoke with one of the fathers of the babies born from one of those embryos, who asked to remain anonymous. After multiple unsuccessful IVF attempts, he and his partner used a donor egg, reportedly provided to the couple at no cost.

"It's wild, isn't it," the new dad said. "They said up until now it had always been done manually."

A research paper published in 2020 examining the efficacy of 'spermbots' found the technology could be effective, but faced some challenges.

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"Spermbots, while very promising, have some challenges to overcome as described above. The main weakness is the low sperm cell/load coupling efficiency, the loss of actuation speed of spermbots compared to free sperm cells and the imaging and tracking techniques," the article, published in the journal Micromachines, read.

There were also challenges in overcoming perceived ethical hurdles, they noted.

"Further, there will be a long road to fulfill roboethics in context with societal, ethical and religious moral opposition and outlook."