USC professor to develop male contraceptive drug

A USC professor has received a $200,000 Partner University Fund award to develop a new type of male contraceptive drug.

Charles McKenna, who is also the chair of chemistry at the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, hopes to create contraceptive drug for commercial use that affects sperm development. McKenna’s idea was one of 12 proposals selected from among 78.

McKenna, with expertise in chemistry, will work with researchers in France at the Institute for Structural Biology Jean-Pierre Ebel and the Institut Albert Bonniot, benefiting from each other’s knowledge.

Despite the distance between Los Angeles and France, McKenna said to USC News this space would not hinder the research.

“The fact that we’re separated by 6,000 miles is no longer a major factor,” said McKenna. “What’s so exciting about this is that we’ll be engaging in a kind of collaboration that typically would be done with the Department of Biology or the Keck School of Medicine at USC … but these biologists happen to be in Europe.”

Researchers will communicate regularly through video conferencing and visit each other’s institutions.

McKenna recently received the USC Provost’s Prize for Teaching With Technology, which awards faculty for successfully integrating technology into their courses.

McKenna is also fluent in French and has worked previously with researchers in France.

“That to me was a perfect fit for the program,” said Mireille Guyarder, the scientific attache for the Consulate General of France in Los Angeles, to USC News.

McKenna said to USC News he expects the collaboration between his department at USC and the French institutions to help build relations, potentially encouraging future graduate students at USC to train in France, or students in France to come to USC.

“At USC, the general impetus has been to globalize research,” McKenna said to USC News. “The emphasis has been mainly on the Pacific Rim. But there are also great research opportunities in Europe at this time.”

The participating biology students in France will be eligible to partake in the USC chemistry department’s Interdisciplinary Program in Drug Discovery.

The Partner University Fund hopes to support innovative and sustainable partnerships between French and U.S. institutions of research and higher education.

Sponsored by the French American Cultural Exchange Foundation in 2007, the fund receives private donations and contributions from the French government.

McKenna learned about the award last fall during an Egide Foundation-sponsored trip to France. Guyader encouraged McKenna to apply for the award.

A previous version of this article  incorrectly listed the amount of the Partner University Fund award as $2,000. The actual amount is $200,000.