2014 CVM News: News about sperm offers hope for fertility, contraceptives

Abstract

This news item is about: When it comes to conception there is no middle ground: either you want to get pregnant or you don’t. Now a new study headed up by Cornell scientists offers good news for both fertility efforts and contraceptive development. In a paper in the journal Developmental Cell, Dr. Alexander Travis and his colleagues demonstrate that a component of the sperm membrane called GM1 tightly controls a crucial step in fertilization, making it a prime target for efforts to either assist fertilization or prevent it.