$400,000
Awarded 2026
Washington University in St. Louis
St. Louis, MO
About
Celia Santi is a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Washington University in St. Louis, where her laboratory studies the ion channel biology of sperm. Her team is among the few in the world with the specialized capability to record electrical currents directly from living human sperm cells — an expertise central to their work discovering drugs that selectively target sperm function. For this project, Dr. Santi collaborates with medicinal chemists and electrophysiologists at Vanderbilt University.
Our Grant
SLO3 is a potassium channel found exclusively in sperm, where it controls the activation steps sperm need to successfully fertilize an egg. Men with mutations in the SLO3 gene are infertile, and mice lacking SLO3 are completely sterile but otherwise healthy — making it an attractive target for a non-hormonal, reversible contraceptive with minimal risk of off-target effects. MCI’s grant supports the Santi and Vanderbilt teams in optimizing lead drug compounds that block SLO3, with the goal of demonstrating contraceptive efficacy in animal models.