LEADING THE WAY
Diagnostics
FAST
Development of the world-first FAST software allowing one-slick analysis of sperm flagellar motility
FAST rapidly detects and tracks sperm imaged in negative phase microscopy, providing flagellar waveforms, wavelength, beat frequency parameters and measurements of the mean hydrodynamic power dissipation along the flagellum. To save you time in your analysis, FAST also calculates the traditional CASA measures.
FAST is not designed to analyse raw semen, it is specifically for precise analysis of flagellar kinematics, as that is the promising area for computer use.
iCENC
Independent Centre for the Evaluation of Non-Hormonal Contraceptives
The development of novel non-hormonal contraception that act on sperm has been hampered by the lack of robust, standardized methods to evaluate the effect of candidate compounds on sperm function. Currently, the evaluation of sperm-targeting compounds is constrained by three major challenges. First, assessments based on small sperm samples inaccurately reflect the population; second, the lack of consensus across the field on how relate lab measurements into actual likelihood of conception; third, existing non-hormonal sperm-targeting compounds have no substantial data sets exploring effects with relation to clinical outcomes (e.g. fertilization in an IVF environment). These challenges collectively mean that the Contraceptive Drug Accelerator (CoDA) ecosystem is currently operating without standardized benchmarks or decision-making criteria
To address these needs we are setting up an Independent Sperm Expert Reference Centre (iSERC) for testing how provided compounds affect sperm fertilising capability; alongside providing consultation, best-practice sharing and reporting to de-risk development.