Doctors of the Columbia University Fertility Center have reported what they call the first pregnancy with the help of a new AI system, in a few that had been trying to found a family for almost two decades.
The pregnancy was possible due to a shot of the Columbia team, led by Dr. Zev Williams, director of the center, to tackle azospermia, or a lack of detectable sperm in the ejaculate. Male factors account for around 40% of infertility in the US, and Azoospermie is responsible for around 10% of those cases. Until recently, few doctors were able to do to tackle the lack of sperm needed to fertilize an egg, other than the use of donor sperm.
While the naked eye, a sperm monster from a man with azospermia, may look normal, the microscope tells a different story, says Williams. Highly educated technicians rarely find sperm in these samples, which are often filled with other rubble. Add to that the fact that sperm is the smallest cell in the body, and it is not surprising that even the best fertility technicians rarely find sperm in Azoospermia monsters.
That is where AI comes in. Williams and his team have spent five years developing a system that combined an AI algorithm for detecting sperm with a liquid chip that passed the sperm monster through a small tube on a plastic chip. If the AI were to pick up sperm, that small part of the sperm would be directed and collected to a separate tube. The single sperm isolated in this way can then be stored, frozen or used to fertilize an egg.
Star called, for sperm -lane and recovery, the system was inspired by similar approaches that astrophysicists use to call in AI to detect new stars and planets. “If you can look in a heaven that is filled with billions of stars and tries to find a new one or the birth of a new star, then we may be able to use the same approach to view billions of cells and try to find what we are looking for,” says Williams. In this case, Star is trained to pick up ‘real, real, real, really rare sperm’, he says. “I compare it to finding a needle hidden within a thousand haystacks. But that can do that within a few hours – and so softly that the sperm that we can be recovered to fertilize an egg.”
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Star is distinguished from AI systems that have been developed to scan and detect specific characteristics, says Williams, because it combines that analysis with the ability to also actively insulate the target in question – in this case, every sperm that is found in a sperm star. The system can scan eight million images in about an hour and Williams remembers the moment when he was convinced that Star could become a powerful tool to treat certain forms of infertility. “To test the system, before we throw samples away where embryologists could not find sperm, we decided to lead those samples through the system. The embryologists worked really hard to find sperm, because they did not want to be surpassed by a machine. In one of the samples they analyzed for two days and found no sperm, founded, founded, Vonda, Vonda, found.”
Rosie and her husband became the first pair that became pregnant with the help of Star in March 2025. The couple spent almost 19 years trying to get pregnant, and Rosie – who asked for a pseudonym to protect her privacy – their Orthodox Jewish faith seemed hopeful during 15 non -successful IVF -Cycli. Prior to pregnancy, they had investigated several options to tackle her husband’s azospermia, including surgery and engaging an expert from abroad to manually analyze and isolation of its samples. She also investigated efforts to extract sperm that were more controversial because they related to the use of chemicals that could possibly be harmful to the quality of sperm.
“There was really nothing else outside,” says Rosie, 38, of their options before she learned about Star. “Especially since I walk for quite a few years than where we should be [for fertility]. I am not that old, but in the fertility years-what-I reached my end. “
They were introduced to Williams and his fertility program through a community group and learned everything they could about the system. “We knew exactly what it was and knew what they were trying to do,” says Rosie. “If they could get sperm in a more natural way without chemicals and hopefully choose the good – if the program could do, we knew we had a better chance.”
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For the couple, the use of Star did not require additional tests or procedures; Their successful cycle in March did not help but one of the other IVF cycles they had experienced. “We kept our hope to a minimum after so many disappointments,” says Rosie. “We came in, did what we had to do for the cycle, knowing that there was probably a very small chance that something happened. Why would this be different from every other time?”
Usually there is much more sperm in an IVF cycle than eggs, says Williams, but in cases of Azoöspermie the opposite is true. So to ensure that a few have the best chance of a pregnancy, Williams and his team collect different parties of sperm with the help of Star and freeze them. They then coordinate the ovulation cycle of the mother on IVF, and on the day they pick up her eggs, they collect a fresh sperm monster, walk through the star and use each sperm that is collected to fertilize all available eggs. The frozen sperm serves as a back -up in case no fresh sperm can be found.
Within two hours after collecting her husband’s sperm, they learned that Rosie’s eggs were successfully fertilized and were ready to be transferred to her womb. “After the transfer it took me two days to believe that I was actually pregnant,” says Rosie.
Now for four months, Rosie receives standard obstetric care, and all the indications are that her pregnancy continues. “I still wake up in the morning and can’t believe whether this is true or not,” she says. And I still don’t believe [I’m pregnant] Until I see the scans. “
Williams says that AzoSpermia is only one of the many infertility problems that AI could tackle. “There are things going on where we are currently blind. But with the introduction of AI we will show what those things are. The dream is to develop technologies, so that those who are told” that you have no chance to have a child “who can now have healthy children.”
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