Digg
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Help
Print
Email
RSS
The Shot That Could Replace the Pill
In as little as a decade, foolproof contraception could be as effortless as an annual flu shot, predicts Peter Sutovsky, a reproductive biologist at the University of Missouri at Columbia. He has been developing a method of birth control that uses a woman’s own immune system to block fertilization.
|
advertisement | article continues below
Courtesy of Peter Sutovsky |
Other researchers are working on related contraceptives that zero in on the proteins that allow sperm to bind to the egg. “But because so many molecules are involved in the process, knocking out one will only reduce fertility, not bring it down to zero,” Sutovsky says. His experiments on sperm and eggs from pigs and cows seem more promising: “When you block proteasomes, you prevent fertilization 100 percent of the time.” He is testing the procedure on animals and has started a biotech company, AndroLogika, to commercialize the technique. “The antibodies would not affect any other process in the body,” Sutovsky says. “Honestly, we don’t see any major drawbacks.”