Our Grantees

Various laboratory tubes and containers, including a green tube rack, are arranged on a cluttered lab bench with scientific equipment and supplies in the background.

A scientist wearing a white lab coat and gloves uses a pipette to transfer pink liquid into a test tube, smiling in a laboratory setting with shelves and equipment in the background.

Wei Yan, MD, PhD Professor of Medicine

$150,000 / 2 years
Awarded April 2018

The Lundquist Institute
Los Angeles, CA

About

Dr. Wei Yan is an Investigator at The Lundquist Institute, and Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. His lab works on genetics and epigenetics of gametogenesis, and epigenetic contribution of gametes to fertilization, early embryonic development and adulthood health. Dr. Yan has published over 130 peer-reviewed research articles and book chapters with over 6,800 citations (as of April 2019). He is the recipient of the 2009 Society for the Study of Reproduction (SSR) Young Investigator Award, the 2012 American Society of Andrology (ASA) Young Andrologist Award, the 2013 Nevada Healthcare Hero Award for Research and Technology, the 2017 University of Nevada, Reno Outstanding Researcher Award, and the 2018 SSR Research Award. Dr. Yan serves as co-Editor-in-Chief of Biology of Reproduction, the official journal of the SSR. For more information please visit the Yan lab website.

MCI's Lemonade Stand: "Triptonide as a Non-Hormonal Male Contraceptive" by Dr. Wei Yan

Our Grant

Male Contraceptive Initiative’s support focused SD1, a novel compound derived from a Chinese herb. His compound shows that sperm produced after administration are non-functional or deformed, and cause reversible infertility in mice. Their efforts seek to move SD1 towards IND-enabling status, and possibly develop new SD1-like compounds with more potential.

With their focus on exciting new male contraceptives, the Yan Lab is actively exploring other methods of development. Yan recently said “We look for the reasons of infertility and at the same time once we identify the reasons we can utilize the mechanism to develop contraceptives.”

Blog Posts

A Conversation with MCI Grantee Dr. Wei Yan

Publications

Triptonide is a reversible non-hormonal male contraceptive agent in mice and non-human primates. Zongliang Chang, Weibing Qin, Huili Zheng, Kathleen Schegg, Lu Han, Xiaohua Liu, Yue Wang, Zhuqing Wang, Hayden McSwiggin, Hongying Peng, Shuiqiao Yuan, Jiabao Wu, Yongxia Wang, Shenghui Zhu, Yanjia Jiang, Hua Nie, Yuan Tang, Yu Zhou, Michael J. M. Hitchcock, Yunge Tang & Wei Yan

Zheng, Huili, Clifford J. Stratton, Kazuto Morozumi, Jingling Jin, Ryuzo Yanagimachi, and Wei Yan. “Lack of Spem1 Causes Aberrant Cytoplasm Removal, Sperm Deformation, and Male Infertility.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 104, no. 16 (April 17, 2007): 6852–57. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0701669104.

Yan, Wei. “Male Infertility Caused by Spermiogenic Defects: Lessons from Gene Knockouts.” Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology 306, no. 1–2 (July 10, 2009): 24–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mce.2009.03.003.

Wu, J., J. Bao, M. Kim, S. Yuan, C. Tang, H. Zheng, G. S. Mastick, C. Xu, and W. Yan. “Two MiRNA Clusters, MiR-34b/c and MiR-449, Are Essential for Normal Brain Development, Motile Ciliogenesis, and Spermatogenesis.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111, no. 28 (July 15, 2014): E2851–57. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1407777111.

Yuan, Shuiqiao, Clifford J. Stratton, Jianqiang Bao, Huili Zheng, Bhupal P. Bhetwal, Ryuzo Yanagimachi, and Wei Yan. “Spata6 Is Required for Normal Assembly of the Sperm Connecting Piece and Tight Head–Tail Conjunction.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112, no. 5 (February 3, 2015): E430–39. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1424648112.

​Our Grantees

Publications

Our Grantees