When couples go through assisted reproduction there are two main ways which the woman’s eggs can be fertilised in the laboratory. The first is where the sperm are incubated with the eggs and they fertilise the egg themselves or the alternative is where the embryologist selects an individual sperm injects the sperm into the egg in a process known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). The quality of the sperm the embryologist selects for ICSI is paramount, as it will lead to a human life. Current sperm selection techniques are inadequate and Professor Fair’s research team have developed a novel microfluidics system which stimulate sperm to swim against a flow in a process known as rheotaxis. This mimics how sperm swim up the female reproductive tract against an outward flow of mucus. They have already shown that the rheotactically selected human sperm select have better motility, morphology, DNA integrity and fertilising ability than current selection techniques (see attached data). The focus of this project is to build on this work and address the unmet clinical need for improved sperm selection techniques.