The first two children were born with the assistance of a robot for injecting sperm into eggs during in vitro fertilization (IVF), a sophisticated procedure that could lower the costs associated with assisted reproduction. Engineers used a robotic needle to introduce sperm cells into eggs at the "New Hope Fertility Center" in New York City, resulting in the formation of two healthy embryos and eventually two girls, according to MIT Technology Review.
This breakthrough in fertility involved the use of a remotely controlled needle and a camera to penetrate the egg in a petri dish, possibly eliminating the need for highly paid embryologists, the report states. A Spanish startup developed a sperm injection robot that can be controlled using a PlayStation 5 controller, and the team successfully used it to fertilize human eggs.
Santiago Muni, chief geneticist at the Spanish company Overture Life, which developed the sperm robot, explained that the technology could someday eliminate the need for patients to visit fertility clinics, where a single attempt to conceive can cost $20,000 in the United States. Muni believes that fertilization could one day be performed automatically by a gynecologist, but he did not specify how multiple eggs could be cultivated and retrieved at this stage.
Overture Life has filed a patent for a "bioware" chip for IVF laboratories, featuring hidden reservoirs containing growth fluids and small channels for sperm to swim through. Some fertility experts are skeptical that robots will reduce costs, considering they do not address the issue of aging eggs, one of the main reasons for the failure of fertility treatments.
