A Major Advance Toward a Birth Control Pill for Men

A Major Advance Toward a Birth Control Pill for Men

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Potentially huge news published today in the journal Cell is the result of two years of collaboration between teams lead by Jay Bradner of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Martin Matzuk Baylor College of Medicine. Bradner, who is also an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, explains the origins of this research as an attempt to block a cancer-causing gene. Put simply, all of an individual’s cells contain the same DNA, and so different cells, such as blood cells or liver cells, “remember” what type they are and what their function is with the help of proteins, which Bradner describes as little bookmarks at the molecular level. The successful development of a male contraceptive could be groundbreaking in several key ways.