Women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) may become pregnant with fewer treatment cycles, thanks to a new device developed by a team of researchers from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and Stanford University that uses an "obstacle course" to sort and select faster and healthier sperm cells for use in IVF treatment. This new device was created by a team co-led by a associate professor of physics, biomedical engineering, and computer science at WPI, and by a professor of radiology and electrical engineering at Stanford University. The work was funded by two separate but collaborative grants from the National Science Foundation and was published in the most recent issue of Advanced Science, a high-impact, peer-reviewed scientific journal.
The microfluidic device, which can be used in clinics, is dubbed SPARTAN, short for Simple Periodic ARray for Trapping And IsolatioN. It uses…
