Scientists have developed a low-cost and easy-to-use smartphone attachment that can quickly and accurately evaluate semen samples for at-home fertility testing, providing a potentially helpful resource for the more than 45 million couples worldwide who are affected by infertility.
It is estimated that male infertility plays a role in roughly 40% of those cases, underscoring a need for more routine and reliable semen analysis testing. Existing clinical protocols that measure semen quality require highly trained technicians to operate expensive and specialized equipment, and are slow to return results.
In search of a better assay, researchers created a portable device that quantified sperm concentration and motility in seconds, using the processing power and camera found in widely-available smartphones. The platform, which the researchers dubbed Fertilex, was assembled for a total materials cost of $4.45, an inexpensive alternative to standard-of-care methods.
Testing semen with Fertilex required only six simple steps to successfully measure sperm concentration, motility and total sperm count from undiluted and unwashed samples. What's more, Fertilex was so user-friendly that 10 volunteers with no formal training - including administrative assistants recruited from a Boston fertility clinic - correctly classified more than 100 semen samples.
The authors. analyzed 350 specimens, demonstrating that the platform could detect abnormal semen with either insufficient sperm concentrations or low levels of motility (according to World Health Organization Guidelines) with greater than 95% accuracy. The authors say the smartphone-based fertility test could be used by men to monitor their semen at home after undergoing vasectomies, or as a point-of-care diagnostic tool in developing countries.
http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/9/382/eaai7863
Latest News
New origin of deep brain waves
By newseditor
Posted 17 Apr
Starving cells hijack prote…
By newseditor
Posted 17 Apr
Miniature battery-free epid…
By newseditor
Posted 17 Apr
Molecular causes of differe…
By newseditor
Posted 16 Apr
Cell's 'garbage disposal' h…
By newseditor
Posted 16 Apr
Other Top Stories
A device for rapid diagnosis of bacterial infections
Read more
Zika virus may cause microcephaly by hijacking human immune molecule
Read more
The mechanism of regulation of hepatitis C viral propagation and pa…
Read more
Novel role for spleen B cells in inflammatory response to bacterial…
Read more
Diet and gut microbes can remotely influence brain inflammation
Read more
Protocols
MemPrep, a new technology f…
By newseditor
Posted 08 Apr
A tangible method to assess…
By newseditor
Posted 08 Apr
Stem cell-derived vessels-o…
By newseditor
Posted 06 Apr
Single-cell biclustering fo…
By newseditor
Posted 01 Apr
Modular dual-color BiAD sen…
By newseditor
Posted 31 Mar
Publications
The immunobiology of herpes…
By newseditor
Posted 17 Apr
Circulating microbiome DNA…
By newseditor
Posted 17 Apr
Spindle oscillations in com…
By newseditor
Posted 17 Apr
Oligodendroglial macroautop…
By newseditor
Posted 17 Apr
COPII with ALG2 and ESCRTs…
By newseditor
Posted 17 Apr
Presentations
Hydrogels in Drug Delivery
By newseditor
Posted 12 Apr
Lipids
By newseditor
Posted 31 Dec
Cell biology of carbohydrat…
By newseditor
Posted 29 Nov
RNA interference (RNAi)
By newseditor
Posted 23 Oct
RNA structure and functions
By newseditor
Posted 19 Oct
Posters
A chemical biology/modular…
By newseditor
Posted 22 Aug
Single-molecule covalent ma…
By newseditor
Posted 04 Jul
ASCO-2020-HEALTH SERVICES R…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar
ASCO-2020-HEAD AND NECK CANCER
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar
ASCO-2020-GENITOURINARY CAN…
By newseditor
Posted 23 Mar