High Throughput Phenotypic Screening for Drug Discovery in Male Fertility/Infertility

We (Andrews/Barratt) have developed a high throughput phenotypic screening platform for measuring both human sperm motility and acrosome reaction using the industry-standard robotic systems available at the National Phenotypic Screening Centre (http://npsc.ac.uk/). This is a unique cutting-edge platform that was originally developed to screen compound libraries to identify potential contraceptive agents. However, in this project we will be studying the use of this approach to identify potential sperm enhancing compounds from a series of different libraries (e.g. approved drugs/bioactives and large chemical diversity sets). The project will then focus on characterising in greater depth the mode-of-action of lead compounds and perform experiments to determine cellular targets. We will use this preliminary data to present to both industrial and non-industrial funding sources to facilitate translation of these potential compounds to the clinic. The project will be an unrivalled opportunity for a student to learn a raft of advance biological techniques as well as gain hands-on experience with industry-standard drug discovery.