Columbia Fertility Looks to the Stars to Help Men with Infertility

Inspired by the techniques used by astrophysicists to find new galaxies and planets, Columbia Fertility is using advanced imaging, AI, robotics, and microfluidics to recover rare sperm cells in men with very low sperm counts and help them become fathers.

"With our method, many men who were previously told they have no chance of having a biological child now have that chance," says Zev Williams, MD, PhD, director of the Columbia University Fertility Center.

The Hunt for Rare Sperm

Healthy semen contains tens or hundreds of millions of sperm cells per milliliter. But approximately 10-15% of men with infertility are found to have virtually no sperm in their semen.

"A semen sample can appear totally normal, but when you look under the microscope, you discover just a sea of cellular debris, with no sperm visible," Dr. Williams says.

Men diagnosed with azoospermia—where even a single sperm cell may not be visible in a semen sample--have very few options outside of adoption or sperm donation.

Some men with this condition opt for a procedure to have sperm surgically extracted from the testes. But this painful procedure is often not successful and can cause complications, including vascular problems, inflammation, and a temporary decrease in testosterone levels.

Another option is to have the semen sample processed with a centrifuge and then have specially trained technicians manually inspect the sample to find the sperm. However, this lengthy and costly method is performed by only a handful of laboratories and can damage the sperm, making it no longer viable.

"The field has really been challenged to find a better way to identify and retrieve viable sperm cells in men with exceedingly low sperm counts," Dr. Williams says.

A STAR is Born

Over the past five years, Dr. Williams' team looked for inspiration in the high-tech methods used by astrophysicists to identify new galaxies in the vast sea of space outside of the solar system to develop the STAR (Sperm Tracking And Recovery) method.

The STAR team is a collaboration of research scientists, clinicians, and experts in diverse areas, including microfabrication, machine learning, and robotics.

First, the team employed high-powered imaging technology to scan through the entire sample, taking over 8 million images in under an hour and using AI to identify sperm.

Next, the team needed a method to isolate the sperm cells as rapidly and gently as possible. They worked with microfluidics experts at Columbia to produce a microfluidic chip engraved with a series of channels as thin as a human hair capable of isolating the portion of the semen sample containing the sperm cell.

Then, a robot was programmed to remove individual sperm cells within milliseconds of their discovery, bypassing the need for a centrifuge or other damaging treatments.

"By avoiding centrifugation, lasers, dyes, or other harsh systems, the STAR system provides a gentler environment that minimizes stress on sperm cells, giving them the best possible chance of being identified and maintaining their viability," Dr. Williams says.

Once a sperm cell is recovered, it can be inserted directly into an egg or frozen and banked for future use.

"The good news is that, with IVF, you only need one healthy sperm to be able to create an embryo," Dr. Williams says. However, the IVF team tries to obtain at least as many sperm as there are eggs.

"We're using the same technologies that are used to search for life in the universe to help create new life right here on earth," Dr. Williams says. "It's truly awe-inspiring to now be able to help patients build the family they always dreamed of."