The elasticity of male fertility by means of phonon microscopy

通过声子显微镜观察男性生育能力的弹性

• 批准号: EP/Y002857/1
• 负责人: Fernando Perez-Cota
• 金额: $ 20.12万
• 依托单位: University of Nottingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FY002857%2F1
• 关键词: elasticity; male; fertility; means; phonon

Fertility is a global-level multifaceted health problem where infertility and birth control are pressing concerns. Around 16% of couples worldwide are unable to procreate causing financial and emotional stress.One-third of male infertility cases cannot be diagnosed by any available test. In conjunction with this, sperm count has decreased in the last 50 years which suggests infertility will only increase. At the same time, population growth threatens sustainability given the finite availability of resources such as energy, farming land and non-renewable materials. These problems call for a better understanding of the biology of reproduction so the challenges of reproductive health can be addressed. With this new collaboration from the University of Nottingham and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, we aim to address some of the challenges of male infertility. We propose to use an interdisciplinary approach to use phonon microscopy, for the first time, to characterise the elasticity of sperm cells with sub-cellular resolution. We expect that elasticity can be used as a biomarker for sterility and can provide further insight into the understanding of the biology of fertilisation.

生育是一个全球性的多方面的健康问题，其中不孕不育和节育是迫切关注的问题。全球约有16%的夫妇无法生育，造成经济和情感压力。三分之一的男性不育症病例无法通过任何可用的检测来诊断。与此同时，精子数量在过去50年里有所下降，这表明不孕症只会增加。与此同时，鉴于能源、耕地和不可再生材料等资源的有限性，人口增长威胁着可持续性。这些问题要求我们更好地了解生殖生物学，以便解决生殖健康方面的挑战。通过诺丁汉大学和墨西哥国立自治大学的这项新合作，我们的目标是解决男性不育的一些挑战。我们建议使用跨学科的方法，首次使用声子显微镜，以亚细胞分辨率表征精子细胞的弹性。我们期望弹性可以用作不育的生物标志物，并可以进一步深入了解受精的生物学。