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As the sperm turns, success

Yale Medicine Magazine, 2003 - Winter

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Although intracytoplasmic sperm injection—in which a single sperm is placed inside a mature egg—increases the chances of a successful pregnancy, it also carries a risk of genetic abnormalities in children. Now two Yale scientists have devised a method for selecting genetically healthy sperm to lower those odds. Gabor B. Huszar, M.D., HS ’76, and Attila Jakab, M.D., found that healthy sperm develop a receptor that recognizes an acid in the female reproductive tract; they then devised a method of using the acid to identify the most robust candidates. Huszar and Jakab presented their work at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology’s June meeting in Vienna.

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