Hopes of fatherhood: UBC scientists on frontier of high-tech male infertility research
A team of researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) is using artificial intelligence in an effort to detect hard-to-find sperm and 3D bioprinting technology with the ultimate goal of growing sperm in the lab — technologies they say could eventually help men with infertility become parents.
The research, led by Dr. Ryan Flannigan, a urologist and associate professor at UBC, is aimed at addressing a "severe form" of male infertility called non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA), in which the body produces little to no sperm.
It's a condition that affects about one in 100 men, many of whom are survivors of childhood cancer, according to Flannigan.
"There's a big problem with infertility: it's so common," he told CBC's The Early Edition. "Something that I see time and time again is just how much of an emotional toll having challenges with infertility is."
According to a UBC media release, about two thirds of male pediatric cancer survivors will face infertility in adulthood, due to the effects of radiation or chemotherapy. Globally, one in six couples struggles to conceive, and male infertility, broadly, plays a role in about half of those cases.
Currently, the only treatment for NOA involves surgically extracting testicular tissue and searching for hard-to-find sperm under a microscope — a tedious process, says Flannigan, that can take hours and still might end in failure.
"It's ... looking for a needle in a haystack," he says. "Right now, we're able to find sperm about 50 per cent of the time. We ideally need to find at least one sperm per each egg, among millions of other cells, which takes hours."
LISTEN | UBC researchers use AI and 3D bioprinting in effort to tackle male infertility:
To improve the odds, Flannigan says he and UBC engineering professor Hongshen Ma have developed an AI-powered tool that scans microscopic images to flag viable sperm for use in in vitro fertilization (IVF).
The technology is still a long way from being available for people struggling with male infertility — Flannigan expects clinical trials for the AI tool could begin within the next three to five years.
But for people who produce no sperm at all, including children who undergo cancer treatment before puberty and are unable to store sperm, a more experimental avenue is underway: lab-grown sperm.
In what the UBC media release calls a world-first, Flannigan and team have bioprinted a model of human testicular tissue using stem cells and a specialized gel-like "bio-ink."
The printed structure replicates the tiny tubes in the testes where sperm are normally produced. These bioprinted 'mini testicles' are encased in a special gel filled with specific nutrients and vitamins to help them mature.
According to researchers, some of the cells have already begun showing signs consistent with the early stages of puberty — "a time when sperm production starts occurring in the human body."
"What we're trying to do with 3D bioprinting is recreate what's happening in a healthy testicle as accurately as we can," said Flannigan.
"If we can determine what the cells need to progress through all the phases of sperm production, we can use that knowledge to figure out how to create sperm for a patient with NOA," says Dr. Flannigan.
The work is being supported by experts in microfluidics — a system that manipulates a small amount of fluids — and cancer biology at UBC and the University of Victoria, who are helping identify the molecular conditions required for sperm to develop.
Still, researchers acknowledge there are significant challenges ahead. According to the UBC release, sperm production is a "highly complicated process" involving multiple cell types, complex anatomical structures, making it a task that demands collaborative, multidisciplinary research.
Laura Spencer, a fertility coach in Vancouver, has experienced the emotional toll of infertility first-hand in her own family.
"I've gone through infertility — male factor infertility in particular — and it's devastating," she told CBC News. "There's nothing quite like it."
She said this latest development in treating male infertility could potentially be life-changing for many couples.
WATCH | An at-home test is in the works to measure male fertility:
"This shows a lot of promise for people who might not have the ability to try and conceive … they might actually be able to have a baby."
Spencer says male infertility remains a taboo subject, despite being a factor in about half of all couples struggling to conceive. She hopes this research not only opens new medical doors, but also breaks down stigma.
"There is a lot of shame and sometimes guilt around that," she said. "I'm always grateful when the conversation turns to infertility and when it's normalized."
While Spencer believes most people would welcome these technologies, she says it's important to acknowledge the complexity involved, particularly with lab-grown sperm.
"There will definitely need to be education around this," she added. "We don't know what the long term consequences are of this technology. Are there any birth defects that are possible? What about when they grow up? Like we don't know. This is just so new."
As for concerns about the safety of AI or stem cell-based procedures, Flannigan says the research team is taking a cautious approach.
"It's one of these things that we need to ensure that we follow all the guidelines to ensure there's no biases," he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Black iceberg spotted off Labrador could be result of an asteroid strike
A rare black iceberg photographed off the coast of Labrador has been making the rounds of social media on this planet, but its unusual colour could be the result of it carrying material from another world. The picture first surfaced last month after a fish harvester from Carbonear, N.L., took a photo of it while fishing for shrimp last month. Hallur Antoniussen, 64, was working aboard the Saputi, a factory freezer trawler operated by the Qikiqtaaluk Fisheries Corporation, off the coast of Labrador in mid-May, when he spotted the black berg. 'I have seen icebergs that are rolled, what they say have rolled in the beach with some rocks in it,' he told CBC Radio's Labrador Morning show. 'This one here is completely different. It's not only that he is all black. He is almost … in a diamond shape.' He took his picture from about six kilometres away, estimating the size of the visible portion at about three times that of a bungalow home. That would mean a submerged portion equal to about 27 more bungalows. 'It's something you don't see very often, and a camera is not something I run around (with) when I'm working,' Antoniussen told the CBC. 'So I just ran to my room and took my phone and snapped this picture.' Comments peppered his Facebook post, suggesting that the colour was toxic gas trapped in ice, or perhaps a rare mineral. Once the photo began circulating more widely — news organizations in Britain, Israel, India, Italy and elsewhere have written about it — the theories grew wilder. A story Monday in Vice magazine opened with the headline: 'That Ominous Black Iceberg Probably Isn't a Sign From the Aliens,' clearly not willing to rule out extraterrestrials entirely. But the truth could actually be in a similar vein. Dr. Lev Tarasov, a Memorial University physicist and glacial earth systems modeller, told the CBC that the berg's hue likely came from the glacier from which it calved picking up rocks and dirt on its way to the sea. 'There's parts of the ice that are actually flowing up to 20 kilometres per year, which would mean that … the ice is moving maybe a few metres every hour,' he said. They pick up rocks and dirt along the way. Some of that debris could have come from volcanic ash from an eruption in Greenland or Iceland. And some could have come from outer space. Back in 2018, scientists from the University of Alaska Fairbanks using ice-penetrating radar discovered a 31-kilometre impact crater in northwestern Greenland, formed by an asteroid strike. It would have been relatively recent in geological terms, perhaps 11,000 years ago, or as far back as a few million. Tarasov estimated some some of the ice in the berg is at least 1,000 years old, but that it could be much more ancient, perhaps as old as 100,000 years. Either way, the dirt that gives it its colour probably hasn't seen the 'light of day for hundreds of thousands of years.' Icebergs are generally paler in colour, and Antoniussen's picture handily contains a more normal specimen off to one side. Most icebergs look white because they contain tiny air bubbles and ice-crystal edges that reflect all wavelengths of visible light. There are others that look blue or even green, but black is out-of-this-world rare. More great whites are visiting N.S. beaches. Is it time for a shark warning system like Cape Cod's? Calgary researchers discover that life has a literal glow Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our newsletters here.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Hopes of fatherhood: UBC scientists on frontier of high-tech male infertility research
A team of researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) is using artificial intelligence in an effort to detect hard-to-find sperm and 3D bioprinting technology with the ultimate goal of growing sperm in the lab — technologies they say could eventually help men with infertility become parents. The research, led by Dr. Ryan Flannigan, a urologist and associate professor at UBC, is aimed at addressing a "severe form" of male infertility called non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA), in which the body produces little to no sperm. It's a condition that affects about one in 100 men, many of whom are survivors of childhood cancer, according to Flannigan. "There's a big problem with infertility: it's so common," he told CBC's The Early Edition. "Something that I see time and time again is just how much of an emotional toll having challenges with infertility is." According to a UBC media release, about two thirds of male pediatric cancer survivors will face infertility in adulthood, due to the effects of radiation or chemotherapy. Globally, one in six couples struggles to conceive, and male infertility, broadly, plays a role in about half of those cases. Currently, the only treatment for NOA involves surgically extracting testicular tissue and searching for hard-to-find sperm under a microscope — a tedious process, says Flannigan, that can take hours and still might end in failure. "It's ... looking for a needle in a haystack," he says. "Right now, we're able to find sperm about 50 per cent of the time. We ideally need to find at least one sperm per each egg, among millions of other cells, which takes hours." LISTEN | UBC researchers use AI and 3D bioprinting in effort to tackle male infertility: To improve the odds, Flannigan says he and UBC engineering professor Hongshen Ma have developed an AI-powered tool that scans microscopic images to flag viable sperm for use in in vitro fertilization (IVF). The technology is still a long way from being available for people struggling with male infertility — Flannigan expects clinical trials for the AI tool could begin within the next three to five years. But for people who produce no sperm at all, including children who undergo cancer treatment before puberty and are unable to store sperm, a more experimental avenue is underway: lab-grown sperm. In what the UBC media release calls a world-first, Flannigan and team have bioprinted a model of human testicular tissue using stem cells and a specialized gel-like "bio-ink." The printed structure replicates the tiny tubes in the testes where sperm are normally produced. These bioprinted 'mini testicles' are encased in a special gel filled with specific nutrients and vitamins to help them mature. According to researchers, some of the cells have already begun showing signs consistent with the early stages of puberty — "a time when sperm production starts occurring in the human body." "What we're trying to do with 3D bioprinting is recreate what's happening in a healthy testicle as accurately as we can," said Flannigan. "If we can determine what the cells need to progress through all the phases of sperm production, we can use that knowledge to figure out how to create sperm for a patient with NOA," says Dr. Flannigan. The work is being supported by experts in microfluidics — a system that manipulates a small amount of fluids — and cancer biology at UBC and the University of Victoria, who are helping identify the molecular conditions required for sperm to develop. Still, researchers acknowledge there are significant challenges ahead. According to the UBC release, sperm production is a "highly complicated process" involving multiple cell types, complex anatomical structures, making it a task that demands collaborative, multidisciplinary research. Laura Spencer, a fertility coach in Vancouver, has experienced the emotional toll of infertility first-hand in her own family. "I've gone through infertility — male factor infertility in particular — and it's devastating," she told CBC News. "There's nothing quite like it." She said this latest development in treating male infertility could potentially be life-changing for many couples. WATCH | An at-home test is in the works to measure male fertility: "This shows a lot of promise for people who might not have the ability to try and conceive … they might actually be able to have a baby." Spencer says male infertility remains a taboo subject, despite being a factor in about half of all couples struggling to conceive. She hopes this research not only opens new medical doors, but also breaks down stigma. "There is a lot of shame and sometimes guilt around that," she said. "I'm always grateful when the conversation turns to infertility and when it's normalized." While Spencer believes most people would welcome these technologies, she says it's important to acknowledge the complexity involved, particularly with lab-grown sperm. "There will definitely need to be education around this," she added. "We don't know what the long term consequences are of this technology. Are there any birth defects that are possible? What about when they grow up? Like we don't know. This is just so new." As for concerns about the safety of AI or stem cell-based procedures, Flannigan says the research team is taking a cautious approach. "It's one of these things that we need to ensure that we follow all the guidelines to ensure there's no biases," he said.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Disease-carrying ticks are showing up earlier in B.C., and in greater numbers
Ticks are showing up earlier and in greater numbers in B.C., spreading pathogens such as the one that causes Lyme disease. Cases of that have gone up nationwide by more than 5,000 since 2009. CBC medical columnist Melissa Lem explains what you need to know.
