Male contraceptive pill research boost for city

SCIENCE: Project creating highly-skilled jobs in Dundee

Groundbreaking research being carried out in Dundee can only mean “fantastic” things for the city, according to a leading scientist involved in the project.

A team of experts at Dundee University has begun research into developing the first male pill, a project that could revolutionise contraception.

Six months since the project beginning, Dr Paul Andrews, the director of operations at the National Phenotypic Screening Centre (NPSC) at the university, has spoken about the benefits that could be brought to the city as a result of the project.

He said: “It’s fantastic for the city of Dundee and there’s been two to three really skilled jobs being created as a result and hopefully that will be expanded.

“Scientists want to come to the city for the research and they are setting up home here, which can only be a good thing for Dundee.”

The research, which is being funded by a £900,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, began in summer this year and involves a team at the NPSC working alongside staff at fertility clinics at Ninewells Hospital trying to establish a way of stopping sperm from being active.

Dr Andrews said: “Dr Chris Barratt (who is the head of the Reproductive Medicine Group at Dundee University and also involved in the research) is at Ninewells and he has patients who come into the clinic there who are infertile.

“In a large proportion of the couples who come in, it is the male who is infertile and by finding a drug that causes the sperm to be immobile, we can probably find something that can work as contraception.”

As Dr Andrews explained, the drug may already be in existence but the research team face a huge challenge trying to find it.

He said: “The way that you find new drugs is by looking through collections but that’s a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack.

“The Gates Foundation allowed us to get a hold of a collection of about 13,000 drugs that have either already been approved or in the process of being so.”

As for the success of the research, Dr Andrews and his team at the NPSC remain confident although he admits tangible results could be a few years off.

He added: “Maybe in a year’s time we will have a bit more concrete information to share because at the moment we can’t really share what the chemistry is because it’s to early.

“But we’ve got some good data so far and it looks like we have a reasonable chance of being successful.”