Visual analysis of sperm DNA fragmentation

A system comprising:

• one or more computers;
• and
• one or more storage devices communicatively coupled to the one or more computers, wherein the one or more storage devices store instructions that, when executed by the one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to perform operations for analysing DNA fragmentation in a sperm cell by approximating the output of a pre-selected chemical assay of sperm DNA fragmentation, the operations comprising:
• (i) providing an image of the sperm cell;
• (ii) evaluating the image of the sperm cell to identify and/or measure a pre-selected biomarker, comprising:
• processing the image of the sperm cell using a computational method and/or technique to generate an output that characterizes one or more morphological features of the sperm cell,
• wherein the pre-selected biomarker is based on the morphological features of the sperm cell;
• and
• (iii) approximating the output of the pre-selected chemical assay of sperm DNA fragmentation of the sperm cell by subjecting the identified and/or measured biomarker to a first computational analysis, comprising:
• processing an input comprising the identified and/or measured biomarker using an assay prediction computational method and/or technique and in accordance with trained values of a set of computational parameters to generate a prediction for the output of the pre-selected chemical assay of sperm DNA fragmentation of the sperm cell,
• wherein the assay prediction computational method and/or technique generates an output that comprises a respective prediction for the output of each of a plurality of pre-selected chemical assays of sperm DNA fragmentation of the sperm cell.

One or more non-transitory computer storage media storing instructions that when executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform operations for analysing DNA fragmentation in a sperm cell by approximating the output of a pre-selected chemical assay of sperm DNA fragmentation, the operations comprising:

• (i) providing an image of the sperm cell;
• (ii) evaluating the image of the sperm cell to identify and/or measure a pre-selected biomarker, comprising:
• processing the image of the sperm cell using a computational method and/or technique to generate an output that characterizes one or more morphological features of the sperm cell,
• wherein the pre-selected biomarker is based on the morphological features of the sperm cell;
• and
• (iii) approximating the output of the pre-selected chemical assay of sperm DNA fragmentation of the sperm cell by subjecting the identified and/or measured biomarker to a first computational analysis, comprising:
• processing an input comprising the identified and/or measured biomarker using an assay prediction computational method and/or technique and in accordance with trained values of a set of computational parameters to generate a prediction for the output of the pre-selected chemical assay of sperm DNA fragmentation of the sperm cell,
• wherein the assay prediction computational method and/or technique generates an output that comprises a respective prediction for the output of each of a plurality of pre-selected chemical assays of sperm DNA fragmentation of the sperm cell.