Male Contraceptive

Prof. Margarida Fardilha is an Associate Professor with Habilitation at the Department of Medical Sciences (DCM), University of Aveiro (UA) and the coordinator of the Signal Transduction Lab (STL) at the Institute for Biomedicine (iBiMED), UA. Her major topic of research is the role of Phosphoprotein Phosphatase 1 (PP1) in male physiology and pathology. To identify PP1 protein complexes, Margarida has utilised the yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) system and more recently mammalian 2H screening. Margarida provides the MCRC with unique expertise of PP1 and PP1 interactomes related to male reproductive biology. She is currently identifying protein complexes as therapeutic targets and developing tools to modulate these complexes. These efforts, currently supported by the MCI, include the development of a novel male contraceptive. Margarida has published >157 papers quantified by an h index of 25. 

Prof. David Craik AO, is a Professor of Chemistry at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, and Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science. His research focuses on applications of peptides in drug design and agriculture. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and is recipient of numerous prizes in the peptide field, including the Hirschmann Award of the American Chemical Society. He is author of more than 840 scientific papers and has trained 70 PhD students.

Dr. Lai Yue Angeline Chan is a peptide chemist specializing in the discovery and development of nature-inspired peptides for therapeutic applications in human health and as bioactive insecticides for agricultural use. Her research integrates expertise in peptide synthesis, analytical chemistry, and proteomics with advanced structural techniques, including nuclear magnetic resonance and circular dichroism. Her work primarily focuses on disulfide-rich peptides derived from diverse natural sources and toxins from marine and terrestrial organisms. Her studies have significantly contributed to understanding the sequence diversity and structure-activity relationships of these peptides. Her research underscores the therapeutic potential of these peptides in addressing critical health challenges, including contraception, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases.

Dr Erick J.R. Silva is Assistant Professor in the Department of Biophysics & Pharmacology, Institute of Biosciences of Botucatu, São Paulo State University. He is the Principal Investigator and Leader of the Laboratory for Reproductive Pharmacology and Andrology. He provides the MCRC with over 10 years of experience in preclinical male contraceptive research, with a focus on sperm-associated proteins as drug targets for non-hormonal male contraception. He currently leads a project focused on the pharmacological applications of the protein EPPIN (epididymal protease inhibitor) as a sperm-based contraceptive drug target. Additional research interests include molecular aspects of sperm function, physiology of the epididymis and post-testicular sperm maturation, immunobiology of the epididymis, non-hormonal male contraception, and protein-protein interactions in the spermatozoon.

Dr Sarah Jones is a Reader in Pharmacology at the University of Wolverhampton, UK. Her research has focussed on the ability of Cell Penetrating Peptides (CPPs) to target previously elusive intracellular candidate sites for therapeutic intervention. Together with Professor Howl, she pioneered the development of bioactive CPPs, bioportides, which resulted in a paradigm shift from the use of CPPs as inert vectors, to their applicability and therapeutic utility as modulators of intracellular protein-protein interactions. Such technologies precipitated the identification of CPPs capable of penetrating human sperm and the subsequent development of STOPSPERM bioportides, in collaboration with Professor Fardilha. Additional research foci have included the use of bioportides to modulate stem cell biology, apoptosis, angiogenesis and Parkinson’s disease pathophysiology. Sarah is currently a peer-elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and has served as a peer-elected member of the European Peptide Society’s Scientific Affairs Committee (2016-2023) and the Protein and Peptide Science Group of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2015-2019).