Male fertility is half the problem.
A large share of it goes unexplained, with no targeted treatment to offer. That gap is one of the clearest unmet needs in fertility care.
The problem
Most of it is recorded as unexplained
Around 15% of couples worldwide experience infertility, and a substantial share of male factor infertility is classified as idiopathic — no identified cause. For those couples the next step is usually assisted reproduction.
Some of that unexplained infertility is not unexplained. It is metabolic, and it is genetic.
The biology
Motility is expensive
Sperm motility depends on ATP generated by mitochondria in the sperm midpiece, and the structural integrity of those mitochondria depends on choline metabolism. Common inherited variants constrain that metabolism, and men carrying them show altered mitochondrial structure and reduced motility. Research at UNC Chapel Hill established the relationship; our formulation is targeted to the constraint it identifies.
The test and the IP
Our algorithm was developed from a clinical study of 246 men and evaluates the one-carbon pathway variants governing sperm ATP and motility together, rather than as isolated markers.
US Patent 8,586,300 — “Genetic polymorphisms and infertility” — licensed from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Inventors Steven H. Zeisel and Amy Johnson; granted November 2013.
What is being studied
Common enough to matter
Up to 48% of men carry variants that impair mitochondrial function
Ongoing clinical research in men will determine whether the ATP depletion seen in mechanistic and preliminary human studies accounts for the motility changes already observed, and whether those changes can be restored through nutritional intervention.
Current status
Sperm Function is in development and is not currently available for order. An NIH grant proposal supporting the program is currently under review for 2027.