The Next Catholic Schism...or so they say...

Scientist Wins Male Contraceptive Grant

(AP)
A Norfolk State University researcher who has worked nearly 20 years to create a male contraceptive will share in a $3.6 million grant to help him further his work.

The funding for Joseph C. Hall's research is from the National Institutes of Health. The grant, Hall said, will bring to his research the world of "computer-assisted drug design" to speed the time he can produce compounds for testing. The grant, distributed over five years, will support Norfolk State's Center for Biotechnology and Biomedical Sciences, which Hall directs.

Hall's research, which has received money from the National Science Foundation, seeks to blunt sperm's ability to fertilize eggs. His focus is the enzyme that penetrates the sugar coating that surrounds the egg. He is seeking a compound that can bind to the enzyme, deactivating the sperm. While Hall has reached a solid success rate of 92 percent, he wants his contraceptive to be 100 percent foolproof. He expects the final product to be in the form of a patch.

The university's first NIH grant in 13 years will also will be used on protein research, which could improve cancer treatments; add at least a handful of faculty positions; and provide opportunities for students and faculty members to collaborate with their counterparts at Eastern Virginia +Medical+ School and the University of Virginia.

"So often, Norfolk State has had to be the school that follows new leads that come up in generally established programs," said Hall, an associate professor of chemistry. "We decided to take an initiative role and be a leader for a change."

By supporting the emerging field of computer-assisted drug design, the NIH grant will help Hall make and test compounds more quickly.

"Right now, at the rate I'm going, synthesizing one compound at a time, it would take me five to six years to test to get the right one," Hall told The Virginian-Pilot. "This will shorten the time to six months or a year."

The grant also will pay for new supplies and equipment, lab renovations and training and travel for researchers, said Sandra J. DeLoatch, the dean of the School of Science and Technology.

"For undergraduates, it's tremendous," she said. "It allows us to provide very valuable research experience to students to hopefully motivate them to go to graduate school to continue their studies."



aC. Sidebar

So if you don't believe high school girls should be on the pill or if your against contraceptive, how do you feel about this? Would this weaken the masculinity of males? How will men take it? If this is cheaper than a pack of rubbers then i'll take it, as long as it also improve sexually performance. Nothing is more sad than not being able to raise your crane when you need to, but can't. Which is to say, ED can be a contraceptive all in itself. The male pill...I wonder what it will be called. If you have Yasmin for women what about Cobra for men, because you can't have some silly, sensitive name marketed towards men. You can't reference that it will make you BUTCH, because your little Johnnys aren't really doing anything. I think COBRA would be a good name because it does take a bite out of you, but the pill still enables you attack. Can't you just feel the sexual innuendos from the name.

Okay, it's a Friday, I can be a little silly.