Project description
Investigating the sperm centrosome to explain male infertility
Infertility affects roughly one in six couples worldwide. This is often linked to declining sperm quality. About one-third of cases are unexplained, involving early embryo loss from faulty cell division, potentially tied to defects in the sperm centrosome, which is essential for the embryo’s first division. The ERC-funded CentRed project aims to investigate how the sperm centrosome is remodelled during spermatogenesis to facilitate the first cell division in embryos, a process linked to many cases of infertility. By using various scientific methods, the project will identify molecular changes and defects in the centrosome. This research aims to enhance our understanding of male-factor infertility and could lead to new diagnostics and improved treatment options for unexplained infertility.
Objective
Worldwide, 17% of couples are affected by infertility, with studies showing a steady decline in sperm quality over recent decades. One in three cases remain unexplained, often marked by a sudden loss of the early embryo due to erroneous cell division, and are therefore hard to treat. Case studies link early embryonic loss to defects in the sperm centrosome, a paternally inherited organelle essential for the embryo's first cell division. Unfortunately, a mechanistic understanding of sperm centrosome function is lacking and its contribution to (in)fertility is understudied.
CentRed is centred on the hypothesis that the sperm centrosome is remodelled during spermatogenesis to organise the first embryonic cell division, via a pathway known as 'Centrosome Reduction', with many cases of centrosome-related infertility stemming from defects in this transformation. To test this hypothesis, my team and I will use a multi-disciplinary approach, combining in situ structural biology, histology and biochemistry. We aim to achieve the following objectives:
1. In situ Structural Biology. Resolve the molecular changes that take place during Centrosome Reduction and visualise defects occurring in patients with centrosome-related infertility.
2. Histology. Construct a comprehensive timeline of this molecular transition.
3. Biochemistry. Develop an in vitro assay to test and study sperm centrosome function in fertile and infertile male subjects.
This pioneering work will be the first molecular study to resolve the fundamental role of the sperm centrosome and reshape our understanding of male-factor infertility. In a broader context, CentRed will result in new approaches to diagnose unexplained infertility and has the potential to vastly improve treatment outcomes.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine embryology
- natural sciences biological sciences histology
- natural sciences biological sciences molecular biology structural biology
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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(opens in new window) ERC-2025-STG
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9052 ZWIJNAARDE - GENT
Belgium
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