Automation of Gamete Preparation, Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI), Embryo Culture, and Vitrification

In the researchers' words

Patients suffering from infertility may seek assisted conception treatment. In a full treatment cycle, the sperm and eggs (gametes) from the intended parents will be looked after by skilled laboratory staff (embryologists) who will rely on manual laboratory processes to achieve fertilization. The most commonly employed method to achieve fertilization is intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), a treatment that involves the injection of a single sperm cell directly inside an egg. The embryos so obtained are then be maintained in an appropriate environment (incubator) for several days before deciding whether they can be immediately used to attempt to establish a pregnancy (embryo transfer), or should be frozen in preparation for a future treatment (cryopreservation). The laboratory steps required to complete a full assisted conception treatment (from sperm and egg retrieval, to fertilization, and then to embryo transfer and/or cryopreservation) are often manual and time-consuming, and thus the success of the treatment is highly dependent on the skill of individual staff and outcomes can be affected by fatigue, stress, and workload. The combination of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to provide improvements to, and standardize, the fertility laboratory, but such integration has not been achieved routinely. Other medical fields, such as regenerative…