Descripción del proyecto
Microrrobots para asistir en tareas de fertilización
El proyecto MicroRepro trabaja en una tecnología puntera basada en microrrobots médicos que impulsan el esperma para que fertilice un ovocito. La infertilidad afecta a casi cincuenta millones de parejas en todo el mundo, por lo que es necesario contar con alternativas avanzadas a la inseminación artificial, con un porcentaje de éxito del 30 %, y la fertilización «in vitro», con un mayor porcentaje de resultados, pero también más invasiva. El proyecto MicroRepro ofrece un método más similar al natural que aprovecha y mejora los logros en nanotecnología y microrrobótica. El equipo incluye in PI que ha inventado un dispositivo relevante (Spermbot). Con su trabajo esperan resolver un problema médico crítico y avanzar considerablemente en la investigación sobre imagen biológica, nanociencia y biología.
Objetivo
Infertility is a health issue with sociological and psychological implications that affects approximately 50 million couples worldwide and therefore receives global attention. Among fertility issues, male infertility is diagnosed in about 40% of all cases and the major causes are poor motility of spermatozoa (asthenospermia), low sperm count (oligospermia), abnormal sperm morphology (teratospermia) and/or combinations of these, leading to their inability to fertilize an oocyte. Such problems have been mainly addressed by artificial insemination (AI) and in vitro fertilization (IVF). AI involves introducing sperms into a woman’s uterus with a medical instrument, but its applicability is limited and its success rate is below 30%. In contrast, IVF and intracytoplasmic sperm injection can be more effective but implicate more invasive procedures such as removing oocytes from a woman’s ovaries, fertilize them outside of the body and then transfer the embryos back to the uterus a few days later. These difficulties demand rethinking of assisted fertilization and the sought after novel approaches that offer more natural procedures with high success rate. Hence, we propose untethered medical microbots to assist sperm cells to fertilize an oocyte in living organisms (mice model). The MicroRepro project will bring advances in areas such as bioimaging, nanomaterials science and fundamental biology, boosting the whole field of medical microbots in the process, as was recently highlighted by the PI in an extended comment [Nature 545, 406(2017)]. The PI has decisively contributed to the field of microrobotics and invented the sperm-robot (Spermbot) concept together with his team in two previous patent applications and several publications. The mere concept has attracted worldwide attention. However, even in vitro fertilization has never been achieved – therefore, targeting the challenges leading to the first spermbot fertilization will be the main objective of this project.
Ámbito científico
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantInstitución de acogida
09111 Chemnitz
Alemania