World’s first birth following conception with a fully automated remotely operated ICSI system

(Press-News.org) 10 April 2025: The world’s first baby has been born following conception with a fully automated, digitally controlled intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) system. ICSI, developed and adopted into widespread use in the 1990s and now a routine method of assisted conception, achieves fertilisation by injecting a single sperm cell into the centre of a mature egg.

The details are reported today in the peer-review medical journal Reproductive Biomedicine Online.(1) The automated system was described and developed by a multidisciplinary team of specialists from Conceivable Life Sciences in New York and Guadalajara, Mexico, led by embryologist Dr Jacques Cohen, Chief Medical Officer Dr Alejandro Chavez-Badiola and Lead Engineer Professor Gerardo Mendizabal-Ruiz. Treatment was provided under review board oversight at Hope IVF Mexico (Guadalajara) as part of a pilot investigation into various processes of automation in the fertility laboratory.

The system was developed as a workstation automating each of the 23 steps of the standard ICSI procedure. These steps were operated independently either under artificial intelligence (AI) control or under the digital control of a remote operator. Presently, all the world’s ICSI procedures are performed manually by skilled embryologists operating microinjection systems. However, as studies have indicated, performance by the ICSI embryologist can vary significantly between individuals; now, says Dr Cohen, automation of the ICSI process ‘represents a transformative solution that promises to enhance precision, improve efficiency, and ensure consistent outcomes’ through reduced variability and work-related stress on human operators. He adds that the automated process might not only provide standardisation but will also improve egg survival and optimise timing of the injection.

AI has made significant advances in the IVF laboratory, with progress in sperm and egg selection. In the application of this latest system AI was used to position the sperm cell in the injection pipette and direct the microinjection itself within the egg.

‘With AI,’ explained Professor Mendizabal-Ruiz, ‘the system autonomously selects sperm and precisely immobolises its midsection with a laser ready for injection - executing this rapid, precise process with a level of accuracy beyond human capability.’

The successful birth was accomplished in a 40-year-old woman referred for treatment with donor eggs at Hope IVF Mexico in Guadalajara, following a previously unsuccessful IVF attempt which had produced only one mature egg and no embryos. In the study cycle, five eggs were assigned to fertilisation with automated ICSI, and three as controls with standard manual ICSI. The automated system was set up on site but thereafter remote operators, in the Guadalajara clinic and in New York, issued commands via a digital interface to perform each of the 23 microinjection steps for each egg (a total of 115 steps). Overall, the entire procedure took an average of 9 minutes 56 seconds per egg, a little longer than routine manual ICSI because of its experimental nature, but, said Professor Mendizabal-Ruiz, ‘we expect to reduce procedure time significantly’.

Four of the five injected eggs in the automated system achieved normal fertilisation and all three in the manual control group. One high quality embryo which progressed to the blastocyst stage in culture had been fertilised with the automated system under remote control in New York, 3700 km away. After this vitrified/thawed blastocyst was transferred in a subsequent cycle, a pregnancy was established which continued normally to delivery of a healthy male baby.

Dr Chavez-Badiola explains that the ICSI system described in this report supersedes all previous developments in ICSI by automating each single step of the microinjection procedure, with the additional steps of sperm handling and selection by AI.

Now, he adds, the system’s validity in a wider treatment application will depend on its safe performance in a study involving more cases. Nevertheless, he notes, the development so far, validated by a healthy live birth, marks a significant step towards full automation in the IVF laboratory. Here, automation has already become established practice in embryo culture, with incubators visualising embryos with time-lapse images and AI monitoring development and predicting outcomes. Automation is also being applied during the cryo-storage of eggs, sperm and embryos, as well as in sperm assessment and preparation procedures.


1. Mendizabal-Ruiz G, Chavez-Badiola A, Hernadez-Morale E, et al. A digitally controlled, remotely operated intracytoplasmic sperm injection system: The first live birth. Reprod Biomed Online 2025; doi:10.1016/j.rbmo.2025.104943

* For more information on this press release and the published paper, please contact:
Duncan Nicholas, RBM Online Development Editor
dev.editor@rbmonline.com

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