Natalia is a PhD candidate in the lab of Dr. Levin and Dr. Buck at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City.  She focuses her research on soluble adenylyl cyclase (sAC), a protein that is necessary for sperm motility and sperm’s ability to fertilize the oocyte. Natalia is investigating the toxicology and side effect profile of a series of sAC inhibitors. The Levin/Buck laboratory is focused on developing a contraceptive product, so MCI’s support enables Natalia to learn more about translational sciences and drug development.

Martin is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Copenhagen, Department of Chemistry and the Department of Growth and Reproduction (GR), Rigshospitalet, Denmark. He works in collaboration with Anders Rehfeld at GR, who has recently shown that a known pharmaceutical has a direct inhibitory effect on the Cationic channel of Sperm (CatSper). As CatSper is exclusively expressed in human sperm cells and essential to motility, chemotaxis, and the acrosome reaction, it is a promising contraceptive target. Martin is performing a structure-activity-relation study using the pharmaceutical as a lead molecule to elucidate a pharmacophore model for the activity on CatSper in human sperm cells.

​Brendan is a postdoctoral researcher working with Moira O’Bryan at the Bio21 Institute and School of BioSciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia. His research has recently shown that malate dehydrogenase 1B (MDH1B), a novel sperm specific energy protein, is essential for male fertility. MDH1B appears to be a sperm specific version of the systemically expressed MDH1 protein that plays a key role in metabolism. Brendan is now characterizing the precise role of MDH1B in sperm function and male fertility using a knockout mouse model. He is also developing an assay to test the activity of MDH1 and MDH1B, and collaborating with experts in drug design to develop compounds that selectively target MDH1B. These approaches will collectively assess the feasibility of MDH1B as a contraceptive target.

Carla is a postdoctoral researcher at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City. Her project is on sAC, an adenylyl cyclase essential for sperm to reach and fertilize the oocyte. In a collaborative project across institutions, the Levin/Buck laboratory successfully developed highly potent and selective sAC inhibitors. Carla will test the efficacy of the different candidate molecules on human sperm capacitation. With MCI’s support, she can push this project one step closer towards the development of a male contraceptive.

​Candice is a PhD candidate in Dr Zhibing Zhang’s lab at the Department of Physiology, Wayne State University. Her research revolves around the investigation of the association between PACRG (parkin co regulated gene) and DNALI1 (dynein light intermediate polypeptide 1). As this association is crucial for normal spermiogenesis to take place, her goal is to identify a compound that disrupts PACRG/DNALI1 interaction as a form of male-based contraceptive. MCI’s support allows Candice to further develop her research techniques and prepares her for a career after graduate school.

​MCI Grantee & Fellow Conversations: Oleksandr "Sasha" Kirsanov

MCI Grantee & Fellow Conversations: Saman Nyyab

Noman is a PhD candidate in the Georg group at the University of Minnesota in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and the Institute for Therapeutics Discovery and Development. His research goal is to develop RARɑ antagonists as male contraceptive agents. RARɑ is a receptor for vitamin A metabolite - retinoic acid - and is essential for the production of sperm. Noman aims to block RARɑ signaling using drug-like small molecules to inhibit the sperm production. Support from MCI allows him to expand his work, learn new skills, and advance his career.

Publications
Noman, M., Kyzer, J. L., Chung, S., Wolgemuth, D. J., & Georg, G. I. (2020). Retinoic acid receptor antagonists for male contraception: current status†. Biology of reproduction, 103(2), 390–399. https://doi.org/10.1093/biolre/ioaa122

Melanie is a postdoctoral researcher at Weill Cornell in New York City working on soluble adenylyl cyclase (sAC), a protein essential for sperm motility and capacitation. Melanie is working across disciplines to develop an inhibitor of sAC that could be used as a contraceptive. MCI’s Fellowship Program allows her to collaborate with unique partnerships and gain new skills in drug development, all within the realm of male contraception. 

Publications
Optimization of Lead Compounds Into On-Demand, Non-Hormonal Contraceptives: Leveraging a Public-Private Drug Discovery Institute Collaboration
Balbach, Melanie, Makoto Fushimi, David J Huggins, Clemens Steegborn, Peter T Meinke, Lonny R Levin, et al., ‘Optimization of Lead Compounds into On-Demand, Nonhormonal Contraceptives: Leveraging a Public–Private Drug Discovery Institute Collaboration†’, Biology of Reproduction, 2020. ​

MCI Grantee & Fellow Conversations: Melanie Balbach

Aaron was recently a postdoctoral researcher in Palo Alto, California working at Stanford University. His research was on HIPK4, a novel protein kinase expressed in the testes. Aaron is trying to understand the roles of HIPK4 in sperm development and function with the aim of understanding more about the protein as a target for contraception. MCI’s Fellowship Program not only allowed Aaron to focus on a contraceptive project, but allowed him to publish his work and move on to a career at Vibliome Therapeutics – continuing his contraceptive focus. Read more about Aaron’s work here.

Publications
HIPK4 is Essential for Murine Spermiogenesis
​J Aaron Crapster, Paul G Rack, Zane J Hellmann, Austen D Le, Christopher M Adams, Ryan D Leib, Joshua E Elias, John Perrino, Barry Behr, Yanfeng Li, Jennifer Lin, Hong Zeng, James K Chen. 'HIPK4 is Essential for Murine Spermiogenesis,' eLife 2020

As a graduate student at Berkeley, Liliya works in the Lishko Lab on sperm motility. Her project is seeking to develop ANT4 as a male contraceptive. ANT4 is involved in the transport of energy in mature sperm cells and is required for them to swim. Liliya’s work is looking for interesting ways of shutting down ANT4, and making spermatozoa nonmotile. With MCI’s support, Liliya has funding to grow her career and investigate an exciting project.

Publications
The Impact of Di-2-Ethylhexyl Phthalate on Sperm Fertility
​Liliya Gabelev Khasin, John Della Rosa, Natalie Petersen, Jacob Moeller, Lance J. Kriegsfeld, and Polina V. Lishko, ‘The Impact of Di-2-Ethylhexyl Phthalate on Sperm Fertility,’ Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, 2020,

Jae Yeon is a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Jean-Ju Chung at Yale. He’s working on CatSper, one of the most interesting, but stymieing contraceptive targets. CatSper is required for male fertility, but is difficult to study because of its complexity. Jae Yeon is developing a new screening platform that makes it easier to develop drugs for CatSper. With MCI’s support, he can push this target closer to the main stage.

Publications
​C2cd6-encoded CatSperτ targets sperm calcium channel to Ca2+ signaling domains in the flagellar membrane
​Jae Yeon Hwang, Huafeng Wang, Yonggang Lu, Masahito Ikawa, Jean-Ju Chung

3D in situ imaging of the female reproductive tract reveals molecular signatures of fertilizing spermatozoa in mice
Lukas Ded, Jae Yeon Hwang, Kiyoshi Miki, Huanan F Shi, Jean-Ju Chung. '3D in situ imaging of the female reproductive tract reveals molecular signatures of fertilizing spermatozoa in mice,' eLife, 2020

MCI Grantee & Fellow Conversations: Jae Yeon Hwang

Max is a graduate student in the lab of Celia Santi at WashU in St. Louis. His project is on SLO3, a protein in sperm required for capacitation and fertilization. In a collaborative project across institutions and fields, Max is testing inhibitors of SLO3 and making spermatozoa nonmotile. With MCI’s support, Max has the funding to focus on the science, publish his work, and build a career.

MCI Grantee & Fellow Conversations: Max Lyon

Interested in becoming an MCI Fellow? More information on our Funding page.