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BIA-Brukerstyrt innovasjonsarena

Sperm cell activators for Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART)

Tildelt: kr 7,0 mill.

Prosjektnummer:

192991

Prosjektperiode:

2009 - 2011

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The principal goal of the present project is to identify and develop small chemical compounds that will increase the quality of sperm cells used in Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART). If successful, the project will generate both substantial commercia l value for Spermatech AS, and a huge benefit for couples suffering from involuntary childlessness. The project is planned to be performed in collaboration with Evotec AG, Charles River Laboratory Ltd, University of Oslo, Biomolex AS and the Rikshospitale t Medical Center. ART is a term describing a variety of medical procedures developed to meet the challenges involved in reduced fertility. A compound that increases the quality of sperm cells has the potential to improve all areas of ART involving prepar ation of freshly ejaculated or crypreserved sperm samples. The evolution of better compounds will be monitored mainly by testing on human sperm cells. Common parameters like motility and hyperactivation will be monitored by computer-assisted semen analysi s (CASA) and tyrosine phosphorylation by peptide microarrays. Promising compounds will also be tested in in vitro fertility experiments using mice. One challenge is that the compounds must be hydrophilic enough to be stable in an aqueous solution and at t he same time be hydrophobic enough to penetrate the cell membrane of the sperm cell. A critical challenge will be to test if the compounds have mutagenic or teratogenic effects. Standard toxicological and teratogenic tests like Ames test and Chromosomal a berration assay will be performed The world market for cell culture media used in assisted reproductive technologies is more than 1 billion NOK annually. The market is growing by 10% annually because of a higher demand of this technology. The overall co mmercial concept of this project is to achieve sperm cells activators for ART, and sell such activators on the market worldwide through distributors or license agreements.

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BIA-Brukerstyrt innovasjonsarena