MicroFSMA · MicroFluidic based platform for SeMen Analysis
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2019-07-01 → 2021-06-30
- EU contribution
- €196,708
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-SE
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
MicroFluidic based platform for SeMen Analysis
MicroFSMA aimed to facilitate a microfluidic-based device for quality sperm separation. Additionally, the project targeted to facilitate the user-friendly computational framework for automated semen analysis. Human infertility is a growing health concern. The assisted reproductive techniques (ARTs), which involve “Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI)”, “Intrauterine Insemination (IUI)”, and “In-vitro Fertilization (IVF)” are being practiced in treating male/female infertility. It has been two decades of research; the success rate of ARTs is saturated to merely ~35% approximately. Many previous studies claim that sperm selection is one of the critical steps for ARTs. The conventional methods including swim-up and density centrifugation cause DNA fragmentation and that leads to one of the potential causes for the ART’s failure. The market for ARTs services, devices, and related consumable is growing at a promising compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Modification in human reproduction laws and increased infertility percentage are the potential market drivers. On the contrary, the higher cost and failure rates appeared as potential market threats. Hence, technological advancement and rapid commercialization is an urgent call from the subject research theme. Previous studies claim that the sperm selection techniques inspired by natural swimming mechanisms viz rheotaxis, thermotaxis, chemotaxis can improve the success rate of ARTs. There are two main technical objectives of the MicroFSMA: 1) Developed a microfluidic chip that is capable in mimicking the physiology and micro-environment of the female reproductive tract while hosting the semen deposition. 2). Developed an automated computational framework that enables the rapid assessment of the parameters associated with sperm cell kinematics (curvilinear velocity (VCL), average path velocity, straight line velocity (VSL), linearity (LIN), wobbling (WOB), and beat frequency (BCF)).
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
MicroFSMA aims to deliver an assay for semen analysis and isolation of quality sperm for in-vitro fertilization (IVF). An automated, user-friendly, standardized, and efficient method is highly in demand from embryologists/andrologists. MicroFSMA consists three microfluidic chips integrated with a commercial computer program. Microfluidics chips will be designed to replicate in-vivo physical and chemical environment of a female reproductive tract. The thermal and chemical gradient will be generated in microchannels to identify responsive sperm cells.Additionally, a computer program will facilitate multi-sperm head and flagella tracking for the recorded time-lapse image sequence. Tracking algorithm will connect the positions of sperm cells in recorded successive images. The continuous wavelet analysis (CWT) /harmonic analysis of the flagellar wave and head trajectory will assist to identify the responsive sperm cell towards the chemical/physical cues. We are convinced that the correlation of sperm kinematics with harmonics/wavelet analysis will reveal potential parameters for male infertility screening. The successful employment of MicroFSMA in an industrial atmosphere will improve the experienced researcher (ER) knowledge of industrial R&D and market strategy. These unconventional skills will ensure the complete exploitation of MicroFSMA results by starting the small-medium enterprise(SME)/academic joint research schemes.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- CHERRY BIOTECH · MONTREUILCoordinatorFrance
Links
- View on CORDIS
- DOI: 10.3030/842299
- https://www.cherrybiotech.com/collaborations/microfsma-microfluidic-based-platform-for-semen-analysis
Data: CORDIS, © European Union