A smartphone that can accurately test sperm count

                                                                              (C)Harvard Medical School

Low sperm count is a marker for male infertility, a condition that is actually a neglected health issue worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. Current methods to diagnose male infertility require laboratory equipment that can cost up to $100,000. On top of that, standard methods often require a specially trained technician. A team of researchers at Harvard is trying to change that. Researchers have developed a rapid infertility diagnostic tool that attaches to a smartphone. The phone attachment works with a smartphone app the researchers created to count the number of sperm and measure motility, which are markers for infertility.
The process is fairly simple. First, you load a small amount of a semen sample onto a disposable microchip. Then you put the microchip into the cell phone attachment  Through a slot. The attachment turns the phone's camera into a microscope. After the sample is loaded, you run the app, which allows the user to see a video of the sample. Then hit record, and the app analyzes the video to identify sperm cells and track their movements. At no point does semen touch the smartphone.
The Harvard team isn't the first to develop an at-home fertility test for men, but they are the first to be able to determine sperm concentration as well as motility.
The scientists compared the smartphone sperm tracker to current lab equipment by analyzing the same semen samples side by side. They analyzed over 350 semen samples of both infertile and fertile men. The smartphone system was able to identify abnormal sperm samples with 98 percent accuracy. The results of the study were published in the journal Science Translational Medicine on Wednesday.