SALT LAKE CITY, May 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Paterna Biosciences, a fertility biotechnology company pioneering male reproductive medicine, has announced a landmark scientific achievement: the company has grown functional human sperm entirely outside the body. The company established viability by using those sperm to fertilize human eggs and form embryos.
Male infertility contributes to roughly half of all cases in which couples struggle to conceive, yet there is no FDA-approved drug treatment for the condition and the field lags an estimated 30 years behind female-focused interventions. In fact, scientists have attempted to produce human sperm outside the body, a process known as in vitro spermatogenesis, for nearly a century and to date have only been successful in animal models.
Paterna's breakthrough came from decoding the biological instructions that guide sperm development: signals and conditions the body naturally creates, recreated entirely in the lab. Starting from a small testicular biopsy, the team coaxed stem cells through the maturation process, producing sperm that are structurally and genetically indistinguishable from those made in the body. Early embryos formed using the lab-grown sperm show results comparable to those produced through standard IVF.
"As a clinician, I often quickly reach a point with these patients where I have to look them in the eye and say there is nothing more I can do. That's what this technology is designed to change," said Dr. Alexander Pastuszak, who is a reproductive urologist and Co-Founder & CEO of Paterna Biosciences. "For the first time, we can offer men who've been told there are no options a path forward that starts with their own biology. That is not a small thing, and the science is groundbreaking."
Paterna has raised $11.4M to date from IVIRMA Global (part of KKR, and the world's largest IVF clinic network), Mayo Clinic, and SpringTide Ventures. They are now raising a $12M Series A. The company hopes to enter international markets in 2029 and achieve initial FDA approval of its product soon after.
Paterna's initial focus is the most underserved patient group: men who produce no sperm at all (a condition known as non-obstructive azoospermia), representing up to 20 percent of infertile men. For this population, current options are limited to a multi-hour surgical procedure under general anesthesia, with no guarantee of finding viable sperm. Paterna replaces that process with a standard office biopsy. Paterna also anticipates its product will serve men suffering from low sperm count and quality, for whom IVF often fails to produce a viable embryo.
About Paterna Biosciences
Paterna Biosciences is a Salt Lake City-based fertility biotechnology company pioneering male reproductive medicine. Founded by reproductive urologists and stem cell scientists, the company is developing the world's first in vitro spermatogenesis platform for clinical use. Dr. Alexander Pastuszak, Co-Founder and CEO, is a board-certified reproductive urologist, PhD scientist, and Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Utah School of Medicine, where the foundational research underpinning Paterna's platform was conducted.
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SOURCE Paterna Biosciences
