Low-cost, portable and automated semen analysis using computational microscopy for home-based testing of male wellness and fertility

One of the most significant events in our lives is the birth of a childAt the same timeon averageof couples find difficulties conceiving within the first year of tryingIn our societyhistoricallyfertility issues are mostly associated with femalesandaposhealthHoweverinof these cases male fertility issues may be at the source of the problemwhiletypicallyare much easier to treatThe fundamental evaluation of male fertility in the clinical laboratory begins with sperm characterizationwhere the golden standard is to use a benchtop microscopemanuallyand or a computer assisted automated semen analysisCASAsystemThoughpartially due to cost and partially due to social stigma associated with clinical evaluation or treatmentmale infertility often stays undetectedThis has generated a demand for inexpensive in home sperm evaluation kitsHoweverthere is currently no product on the market that offers in home and quantitative measurement of sperm count and motilityparameters vital for interpretation of semen qualityThis proposal aims to develop and commercialize a Lucendi Semen Performance AnalyticsLucendi SPAplatformLucendi SPA will be a rapidandltminutessimple to useinexpensivecompactlightweightand portable product for automated analysis of sperm characteristics ideal for repeated and continual testing of male fertility and wellnessLucendi SPA will be designed based on a novel lens free microscopy technology developed over the past decade at UCLA by ProfOzcanandapos s labLucendi SPA system will consist of a disposable cartridgefor single useand a multi use computational readerAnother component of the Lucendi SPA system will be a mobile web application that tracks and quantifies userandapos s sperm characteristics and quality over timeprovides actionable feedback and easy to understand metricsoffers wellness and lifestyle suggestions for improvement of results and stimulates an overall healthy lifestylepromoting wellnessWith the relatively low cost of computational powerwe believe that such a compactlight weight and costeffective automated semen analysis platform running on a wide field lensfree on chip microscope would be especially useful for in home male fertility testsPotential other application areas of this unique semen analysis platform are vast and include post vasectomy tests either at home or in clinicssperm analysis in fertility clinicsincluding IVF proceduressemen quality evaluation in sperm banksstud performance assessment at animal breeding centersand stud health monitoring in farmsIn addition to theseby using a larger area image sensorthis platform can also be transformed into a significantly higher throughput analysis platform that can measure spermsandaposresponse to different drugs or chemicals of various concentrations in parallel Approximatelyof couples find difficulties conceiving within the first year of tryingand inof these cases male fertility issues may be at the source of the problemHoweverpartially due to cost and partially due to social stigma associated with clinical evaluation or treatmentmale infertility often stays undetectedThis proposal aims to develop and commercialize a Semen Performance AnalyticsSPAplatform that will be an in homerapidandltminutessimple to useinexpensive and field portable product for automated analysis of sperm characteristics ideal for repeated and continual testing of male fertility and wellness