Utkan Demirci, Ph.D.

A device the size of your business card can separate the strong, healthy sperm cells from the duds, and it does so in about 10 minutes, according to a new study led by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

The sperm-sorting tool is called the Simple Periodic Array for Trapping and Isolation, or SPARTAN. It filters semen through rows and rows of pillars fitted for healthy sperm.

SPARTAN is not the only device of its kind, but its creators assert that it yields high-quality sperm more efficiently and effectively than others and hence could improve infertility treatments.

A paper detailing the work was published online Dec. 27 in Advanced Science. The study’s senior authors are Utkan Demirci, PhD, professor of radiology at Stanford, and Erkan Tüzel, PhD, associate professor of physics, of biomedical engineering and of computer science at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The lead authors are Stanford postdoctoral scholar Thiruppathiraja Chinnasamy, PhD, and graduate student James Kingsley at WPI… Continue reading.

WASHINGTON, D.C.— The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) has announced the pending induction of Utkan Demirci, Ph.D., Associate Professor with tenure, Radiology Department, Electrical Engineering (by courtesy), Stanford University, to its College of Fellows. Dr. Demirci was nominated, reviewed, and elected by peers and members of the College of Fellows For outstanding contributions and inventions for the development of microfluidic devices and biosensors in point-of-care diagnostics, and additive biomanufacturing..