Deborah Jean Anderson, PhD, professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), has received a four-year, $7.2 million grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in NIH to renew support for a Contraceptive Research Center (CRC) at BUSM to advance its research to develop innovative products based on monoclonal antibodies (mAb) and polyvalent prevention technology (MPT).
This research has the potential to improve the lives of millions of women worldwide by addressing two concurrent reproductive health crises: an unacceptably high rate of unintended pregnancy in both developed and developing countries and an epidemic of sexually transmitted infections “.
Deborah Jean Anderson, PhD, professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine
With prior funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anderson and his team developed a vaginal film containing mAbs against HIV-1 and HSV-2 (herpes simplex virus type 2) which was shown to be safe and effective in a phase 1 clinical trial, and recently, with funding from his first CRC grant, Anderson developed an anti-sperm antibody for contraception. With this new award, Anderson plans to advance these products through advanced clinical trials.
For the past 40 years, Anderson has directed a research laboratory that studies reproductive health, mucosal immunology, and the sexual transmission of HIV. His laboratory was one of the first to study the immunological causes of infertility and to identify risk factors for HIV transmission.
Source:
Boston University School of Medicine