Descrizione del progetto
Utilizzo di microbot per favorire la fecondazione
Il progetto MicroRepro è una tecnologia all’avanguardia che utilizza microbot medici per spingere gli spermatozoi verso la fecondazione di un ovocita. Se si considera che l’infertilità colpisce quasi 50 milioni di coppie a livello globale, sono urgentemente necessarie alternative avanzate all’inseminazione artificiale, che ha un tasso di successo inferiore al 30 % e alla fecondazione in vitro, che può avere più successo ma è anche più invasiva. Il progetto MicroRepro fornisce un metodo più vicino a un processo naturale, utilizzando e migliorando i progressi ottenuti nel campo della nanotecnologia e della microrobotica. Il team include un PI che ha inventato un dispositivo correlato (Spermbot). Le sue promettenti prospettive dovrebbero aiutare a risolvere un problema medico cruciale dando una spinta alla ricerca nel campo della bioimmaginografia, delle nanoscienze e della biologia.
Obiettivo
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.
Campo scientifico
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantIstituzione ospitante
09111 Chemnitz
Germania