In the four decades since the birth of the world’s first IVF baby, fertility treatment has undergone a dramatic transformation. While much of the development has centred on female fertility, an Australian startup is using AI to bring technological advancements to the male side of the equation.
NeoGenix Biosciences, born out of UNSW’s health accelerator program Health 10x, has just achieved the world’s first pregnancy using its ‘SpermSearch AI’ technology, which aims to find the “best” sperm for use in IVF treatment.
It’s the first time AI has ever been applied to surgical sperm detection and comes as there’s been a 50% decrease in male sperm count worldwide over the past 40 years.
Up until fairly recently, medical practitioners were not sure whether the quality of sperm made much of an impact on IVF success. Coupled with a prevailing belief from the public that men can father children well into their later years without consequence, there was little motivation to understand or improve the quality of sperm used in IVF.
“Infertility has long been perceived as a female issue,” said NeoGenix founder Steven Vasilescu. “Turns out that 30% of the time it’s just a male problem, and 55% of the time it’s a combination of male and female factors together.”