Max Robotics — Global Service Robot Directory + US Certification

About

Jaclyn M. Nascimento is a pioneer in the application of biophotonics and robotics to reproductive biology. Her research centers on the intersection of optical trapping, automated microscopy, and sperm physiology, with a focus on developing novel tools to quantify male fertility at the single-cell level. Her most influential work, "An automatic system to study sperm motility and energetics" (2008, 29 citations), introduced a groundbreaking platform that integrates laser tweezers with custom computer tracking and robotics to simultaneously measure swimming speed, curvilinear velocity, and swimming force—alongside mitochondrial membrane potential—in individual sperm. This interdisciplinary approach, further detailed in her 2008 study on domestic dog sperm (24 citations), provided the first high-throughput, noninvasive method to link a sperm’s mechanical output to its energetic state. Nascimento also led the development of "RoboLase" (2006), an internet-accessible robotic laser scissors and tweezers microscope capable of remote-controlled cell microsurgery and ablation. Her work has fundamentally advanced the study of sperm evolution and physiology, offering powerful new tools for both basic reproductive science and clinical fertility assessment.