Washington State University Wins $274,849 to Move Alphatide, a Peptide Male Contraceptive, Toward Human Trials
WSU Regents Professor Jon Oatley's team designed Alphatide by testing more than 2,000 variants of a peptide that disrupts ARRDC5 and TEX38, two proteins found only in male reproductive tissue and needed for sperm production, and mouse studies showed a reversible contraceptive effect without apparent harm, WSU reported. A two-year Washington Research Foundation grant will pay for the final preclinical studies needed before the FDA can allow human testing, which Oatley estimates could start within three years.