One in six couples of reproductive age worldwide are affected at least once by some form of infertility. In vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) are widely-available assisted reproductive technologies (ART). The identification and isolation of the most motile sperm with DNA integrity are essential to IVF and ICSI, ultimately affecting treatment consequences and the health of offspring. Recently, we and others have developed microfluidic technologies to sort sperm according to sperm morphology, motility, DNA integrity, and functionality for IVF techniques. There have also been emerging applications in wildlife conservation, high-throughput singlesperm genomics, sperm-driven robotics, and in-home fertility testing. We work on a broad range of studies applying the principles of microfluidics to sperm research.
Patents:
2. “Fluid Analysis Devices.” US Patent Application No. 20200368745
1. “Analysis and sorting of motile cells.” US Patent Application No. 14/118,809
Thesis:
1. Multi-Layered Paper-Based Microfluidic Platform For Point-Of-Care Male Fertility Test
Articles:
4. iScience, 25 (9), 104986 (2022)
3. Trends in biotechnology, 33 (4), 221-229 (2015)
2. Microfluidics and nanofluidics, 19 (4), 883-890 (2015)
1. Small, 9 (20), 3374-3384 (2013)
- Reviewed in Nature Medicine, 19(4), 800 (2013).
- Featured the inside cover of journal.
- Highlighted in Boston Magazine; Boston Globe; Boston.com; WPI and BWH News.