Family Planning

Darryl Russell of the University of Adelaide in Australia is seeking safer contraceptives that block ovulation without altering hormone levels and cause fewer side effects using an automated in-vitro screening platform that measures cell adhesion in the cumulus-oocyte complex, which is required to release the oocyte from the ovary. In Phase I, they built the screening platform by isolating cumulus-oocyte complexes from mice, culturing them in fibronectin-coated multi-well plates, and quantifying adhesion in a 96-well plate format using an automated assay.

Fiona Gannon of GOAL in Ireland will use mobile technology to conduct surveys of young people aged between 18 and 20 years old in urban regions of Sierra Leone to find out their opinions on contraceptives in order to promote more widespread use. They will develop the survey and advertise and deliver it directly on Facebook to encourage participation. Mobile phone airtime will be offered via mobile money agents as incentive to complete the survey, which will also ensure participants are the right age and from the right area.

Maria Gallo of Ohio State University in the U.S. will adapt a validated computer-based psychological test known as the Implicit Association Test to measure the true opinions of women in Vietnam on hormonal contraceptives in order to encourage use. Vietnam has one of the highest rates of abortion worldwide. Although hormonal contraceptives are available, it is thought that many women are worried about using them and instead use alternative methods that are generally less effective.

Paula Cohen of Cornell University in the U.S. will develop a spermatogonial stem cell culture system to investigate whether the first stage of sperm formation - meiotic division of the spermatogonial cell - is a valuable target for the development of effective male contraceptives. Targeting this early stage rather than later stages has several advantages including that it is accessible to compounds in the circulation, and that the effect on fertility would be rapid and reversible. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms regulating meiotic entry.

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.

Francis Eremutha of the Women Friendly Initiative in Nigeria will develop and conduct surveys to identify the reasons why Nigerian men prefer certain contraceptives to help design new ones that men are more likely to use. Currently, there are limited male contraceptive options available, and they suffer from being ineffective, undesirable, or irreversible. The surveys will be both field-based and online, and will be designed to capture the opinions of married and unmarried Nigerian men between the ages of 15 and 60 across six states.

Francisco Diaz of Pennsylvania State University in the U.S. will develop a high-throughput screening method to identify compounds that can block two biological events essential for female fertility without affecting ovulation or hormone production in order to identify new contraceptives with fewer side effects. These two events, which occur at the same time, are cumulus expansion, whereby cumulus cells release from the oocyte to enable it to enter the oviduct, and oocyte maturation, whereby the oocyte divides to produce the egg and a smaller polar body.

Ayumi Arai of the University of Tokyo in Japan will use anonymized mobile phone data to produce a dynamic census that reveals the movements of all individuals in a population over time broken down into age and gender to help reduce regional malaria transmission. Human mobility and distribution play key roles in malaria transmission but it is difficult to monitor the movements of everybody in a population.

Hayley Dickinson of Monash University in Australia will evaluate the spiny mouse, which is the only rodent that naturally menstruates, as a new animal model for developing and testing contraceptives. Menstruation is an essential feature of human reproduction, and is regulated by hormonal contraceptives. However, current contraceptives like the contraceptive pill can cause side effects such as anxiety and low libido. A small animal model that mimics human menstruation would be valuable for testing new contraceptives that have fewer side effects.

Abi Santhosh Aprem of HLL Lifecare Ltd. in India will attempt to eliminate the side effects associated with copper T intrauterine devices by coating the copper with biodegradable polymers. The polymers could prevent bulk shedding of copper ions that cause bleeding, cramping and pain, leading to increased acceptance of this highly effective contraceptive device.