Illuminating Sperm Motility in 3D: A COMULISglobe Success Story at Euro-BioImaging

Understanding how sperm move in three dimensions is key to advancing reproductive health and improving fertility diagnostics. For Dr. Haydee Hernández from the Centro de Investigación en Ciencias CinC UAEMor in Cuernavaca, Mexico, this question lies at the heart of her scientific journey. With support from a COMULISglobe international access grant, she travelled to the Euro-BioImaging Mesoscopic Imaging Node at ICFO – The Institute of Photonic Sciences in Barcelona, Spain, to explore innovative imaging approaches that could bring new insights into sperm function and fertility.

Connecting global imaging communities

COMULISglobe is a scientific society dedicated to advancing and promoting correlative and multimodal imaging (CMI) worldwide—integrating multiple imaging modalities to provide richer, more holistic views of biological structures and processes. COMULISglobe connects imaging scientists across technologies, disciplines and continents, and is one of Euro-BioImaging’s partner communities. Thanks to funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), the society has been able to support international access to Euro-BioImaging facilities through competitive calls, enabling researchers to perform cutting-edge multimodal imaging projects at Euro-BioImaging Nodes.

Dr. Hernández’s project, “Multimodal Imaging of Sperm Motility,” was one of the initiatives selected through this program. The visit allowed her to apply advanced mesoscopic imaging techniques to study sperm motion with unprecedented resolution—bringing together fluorescence and label-free elastic scattering microscopy to visualise structure and function in living cells.

A warm welcome and world-class support

“ICFO is a great institute to go to,” Haydee recalls. “From the first day, everything was well organised—from travel arrangements to accommodation near the institute. This allowed me to fully focus on the research.”

“This opportunity helped me take a major step toward becoming an independent researcher. I can build on these results for future funding applications and expand my own research program.”

-- Haydee Hernandez

She was impressed by how the Barcelona Mesoscopic Imaging Node ICFO facility, led by Dr. Pablo Loza-Álvarez, operates. “The facility is very structured, with a clear division of roles. Everyone knows what they’re doing and is always ready to help. The atmosphere was welcoming and collaborative—I really felt like part of the group, both at the facility and within ICFO as a whole.”

During her stay, Haydee received hands-on training in the Node’s biological laboratories and imaging systems, including safety and technical courses. “I’m not a biologist, so I had to learn many of the experimental and preparation steps,” she explains. “The technicians and researchers were incredibly patient and supportive—it made a huge difference.”

Advancing fertility research through multimodal imaging

Fertility is a growing global health challenge, and understanding sperm motility is essential to improving both diagnosis and treatment in reproductive medicine. Traditional sperm analysis systems rely mostly on 2D observations, which fail to capture the full complexity of how sperm move and interact with their environment.

Haydee’s project takes a 3D multimodal approach, combining light-sheet fluorescence microscopy, specifically iSPIM with wavefront coding—to reveal molecular and cellular details—with elastic scattering imaging, which provides high-contrast, label-free views of sperm morphology and movement. Together, these modalities generate large volumes of multidimensional data, offering a detailed view of how structural and functional parameters are linked.

Although her original plan involved samples from a fertility clinic, regulatory challenges meant finding a new path. Collaborating with a Spanish biobank connected to ICFO, she successfully secured ethically sourced human samples for imaging. “It took some time to arrange, but once the agreements were in place, everything went smoothly,” she says.

The resulting experiments generated terabytes of 3D+t imaging data, which Haydee is now analysing with support from collaborators—including the original developer of the imaging system, now based back in Mexico. “It’s been exciting to reconnect,” she adds. “We’re working together again to process and interpret these complex datasets.”

Building independence and fostering collaboration

While data analysis is still ongoing, the experience has already had a transformative impact on Haydee’s career. “This opportunity helped me take a major step toward becoming an independent researcher,” she says. “I can now build on these results for future funding applications and expand my own research program. It’s very motivating to see an idea I had three years ago finally come to life.”

The collaboration also sparked new interest at the host facility. “I made the group interested in sperm as a research topic,” Haydee smiles. Inspired by her visit, Dr. Loza-Álvarez’s team has initiated a new Spanish grant proposal exploring label-free, high-speed imaging approaches for fertility studies. 

A shared vision for open access and innovation

This story exemplifies how Euro-BioImaging’s open access model—combined with the CZI-supported  COMULISglobe international access program—creates new bridges between researchers and imaging experts worldwide. By providing both the tools and the expertise to perform advanced multimodal imaging, these collaborations accelerate scientific discovery and support career development for emerging scientists.

For Haydee, the experience was more than a successful experiment. “The whole visit was about making things easier so that you can go further with your research,” she says. “I’m deeply grateful to COMULISglobe, CZI, and Euro-BioImaging for making it possible.”

Her next goal: to push label-free imaging and AI-based analysis even closer to clinical application, where it could enable faster and more accurate fertility diagnostics. With her new network and dataset, Haydee is well on her way.