BU researcher awarded $7.2 million grant to develop mAb-based birth control products

Deborah Jean Anderson, PhD, professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), has received a four-year, $7.2 million grant from NIH’s National Institute of Child Health and Human Development that renews support for a contraception research center ( CRC) at BUSM to advance its research to develop innovative monoclonal antibody (mAb)-based contraceptives and multipurpose prevention technology (MPT) products.

This research has the potential to improve the lives of millions of women globally by addressing two simultaneous reproductive health crises: an unacceptably high rate of unintended pregnancy in both developing and developed countries and an epidemic of sexually transmitted infections.”

Deborah Jean Anderson, PhD, professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine

With prior financing from National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anderson and her team developed a vaginal film containing mAbs against HIV-1 and HSV-2 (herpes simplex virus type 2) that proved safe and effective in a phase 1 clinical trial, and more recently, with funding from her first CRC grant, Anderson developed an antisperm antibody for contraception. With this new award, Anderson plans to advance these products through advanced clinical trials.

For the past 40 years, Anderson has led a research laboratory studying reproductive health, mucosal immunology and the sexual transmission of HIV. Her laboratory was among the first to study immunological causes of infertility and identify risk factors for HIV transmission.