A Platform for Identifying Drugs Targeting Germ Cells

Randall Peterson of the University of Utah in the U.S. will develop a zebrafish model for high-throughput screens to identify compounds that inhibit the formation of gametes, i.e., sperm or eggs, (gametogenesis), which could lead to male and female contraceptives that last for weeks or months after only a single dose. They will generate transgenic zebrafish lines that express a selection of four fluorescently-labeled markers for different stages of gametogenesis that can be rapidly quantified to measure the effects of candidate compounds on blocking gamete production. The suitability of these zebrafish lines for high-throughput multi-well compound screens will be tested using known inhibitors of gametogenesis.