Post by : Badri Ariffin

Artificial intelligence is reshaping medicine yet again — this time changing outcomes in reproductive care. Researchers at Columbia University have unveiled Sperm Tracking and Recovery (STAR), an AI-driven system designed to detect extremely scarce sperm cells in men previously labelled infertile.

In a notable first, STAR helped a U.S. couple achieve pregnancy after 19 years of failed fertility attempts. The husband, 39, and his 37-year-old wife had gone through several IVF cycles and two surgical sperm retrievals without success.

The device processes more than a million microscopic images per hour. When a semen sample looked completely empty under conventional inspection, STAR continued scanning, reviewing over 2.5 million frames across two hours before identifying two viable spermatozoa. Those two cells ultimately made conception possible.

For many men, infertility carries long medical and emotional burdens. Conditions such as azoospermia, where no sperm are detectable in ejaculate, and cryptozoospermia, where sperm exist but are extremely scarce, often leave couples with limited alternatives like donor sperm or adoption.

STAR channels semen through a specialised microchip while its AI algorithms analyse the flow in real time, spotting and isolating candidate sperm into tiny compartments. Those isolated cells can then be used in procedures such as intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), where a single sperm is injected directly into an egg.

Compared with manual microscopic searches and invasive surgical retrievals, STAR’s closed-system method is quicker and reduces contamination risk. The platform relies on single-use components, maintaining sterility while improving precision.

If larger clinical studies confirm these early results, STAR could change protocols for severe male infertility, expanding the possibilities for biological fatherhood for many couples who previously had few options.

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