Male sterility has a cruel face: that of sperm samples that under the microscope look like deserts of cellular debris. No movement, no life, no future. At least until today. Because the same type of artificial intelligence that we use to explore distant galaxies is now scanning these microscopic deserts and finding what no technician had been able to see.
A technology born for the stars that restores hope on Earth, an hour of AI analysis against years of failed human research. Isn't it poetic?
When Astronomy Meets Human Sterility
Zev Williams and his team of Columbia University Fertility Center they spent five years developing something incredible. STAR (Sperm Tracking and Recovery) uses the same algorithms that astrophysicists use to spot new stars in the vast cosmos.
“If you can look at a sky full of billions of stars and find a new one, maybe you can use the same approach to look through billions of cells and find the specific one you're looking for,” Williams explains in an interview with TIME.
How does it work - A high-speed camera captures more than 8 million images of a semen sample in less than an hour. Artificial intelligence analyzes each frame, distinguishing cellular debris from the precious sperm hiding among the biological debris. When it finds a useful cell, a robot extracts it in milliseconds., preserving it for assisted fertilization.
The couple who challenged the impossible
Rosie (name changed to protect privacy) and her husband represent the human face of this technological revolution. Eighteen years of trying, fifteen failed IVF cycles, trips to clinics around the world. The diagnosis was clear and brutal: azoospermia, total absence of detectable spermatozoa in the seminal fluid. A condition that affects approximately 10-15% of men with infertility problems, often considered a final verdict.
In March 2025, STAR analyzed a sample from Rosie's husband and found three viable sperm. Three. Enough to fertilize the eggs and give life to the first embryo conceived with this technology.
“It took me two days to believe I was actually pregnant,” Rosie told CNN. “I still wake up in the morning and have a hard time believing it.”
Male Sterility: The Desert That Hides the Oasis
Azoospermia is one of the most severe forms of male infertility. While a milliliter of normal semen contains between 15 and 200 million sperm, men with this condition have zero detectable sperm. At least that's how it seemed until today.. Experienced lab technicians can spend days examining samples under the microscope and find nothing usable.
“A patient provided a sample, and highly trained technicians searched for two days and found no sperm,” Williams says. “We ran the same sample through the STAR system. In one hour, it found 44 sperm.” The comparison is unsparing: where the human eye gives up after forty-eight hours, artificial intelligence finds dozens of viable cells in sixty minutes.
Technology that changes the rules of the game
STAR is not only fast, it is also gentle. Traditional methods of sperm detection often use dyes, lasers or centrifugation that can damage the cells, making them unusable. The Columbia system avoids all these aggressive processes., using only optical imaging and microfluidics to isolate cells without damaging them.
The entire process costs about $3.000, a fraction of the costly, often unsuccessful surgical procedures to remove a testicle. STAR is currently available only at Columbia University, but Williams and his team are working to share the technology with other fertility clinics.
The future of the fight against sterility
Come I was underlining in this article, research against infertility is making great strides. STAR represents one of those moments in which the most advanced technology meets the most ancient human need: procreation.
Not all experts are completely convinced. Gianpiero Palermo, a pioneer of sperm microinjection, warns that some men may still not have recoverable sperm. But Williams is optimistic:
“With our method, many men who were told they had no chance of having a biological child now do.”
Rosie's story is just the beginning. A couple who waited eighteen years is now expecting their first child. Infertility, at least in some cases, is no longer a life sentence. It's just a problem waiting for the right technology to solve it.
