NANONC, INC. — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase I: NICHD

Description

SPERM SAMPLE PREPARATION FOR POINT OF CARE APPLICATIONS Project Summary Assisted reproductive technologiesARTmethods have improved vastly over the last three decadesThe development of technologies such as in vitro fertilizationIVFintracytoplasmic sperm injectionICSIand preimplantation genetic screeningPGShave enabled pregnancy for couples previously incapable of having their own childrenHoweverdespite these advancements in reproductive technologiesthere have not been significant developments in instrumentation for standardizing semen sample preparation procedures for intrauterine inseminationIUICurrent clinical semen sample preparation procedures are manualtediousslowprone to human errorand likely harmful to sperm due to excessive centrifugation stepsThe laborand equipment intensive nature of sperm preparation for IUI precludes many non specialty OB GYN clinics from offering this service to patientsand generally limits patient access to larger cities with Andrology laboratoriesSignificant problems that Nanonc will address with the current proposal arelimited access to fertility carespecifically IUIdue to high costs and the need for trained Andrology personnel and specialized facilitiessuboptimal sperm preparation results due to extended protocol times and sperm loss during processingandrisks of laboratory errors inherent in multi step sperm preparation protocolsNanonc proposes a systemutilizing microfluidicsfor sperm sample preparation that will take in raw ejaculate and output a purified sperm population in an IUI syringe in less thanminutesThe IUI syringe will be detachable from the rest of the systemDuring theminutesthe clinician will not need to perform any actionsas the system will run all of the sample processing steps in an automated fashionFurthermorethe system will have a footprint of a small desktop printer that is portable to be conveniently placed on a bench in clinical settingA portable system that performs automated isolation of sperm from ejaculate will revolutionize sperm processing and increase access to sperm sample preparationAdditionally the system will decrease costtime and skill required to process spermand potentially improve outcomes for patients with low sperm countsBy increasing the yield and precision of sperm isolation and concentration techniquesour approach has the potential to offer this exact benefit by specifically providing the opportunity for some patients to try less invasive and less expensive procedures Project Narrative Current clinical semen sample preparation procedures are manualtediousslowprone to human errorand likely harmful to sperm due to excessive centrifugation stepsThe laborand equipment intensive nature of sperm preparation for IUI also precludes many non specialty OB GYN clinics from offering this service to patientsand generally limits patient access to larger cities with Andrology laboratoriesNanonc proposes a systemutilizing microfluidicsthat would help solve these problems related to sperm sample preparationthe system will take in raw ejaculate and output a purified sperm population in an IUI syringe in less thanminutes