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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		Are we close to a male birth control?
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:04
	Publish Date:		2016-05-02 00:00:00
	Description:		How close are researchers to a male birth control? By preventing what is called a sperm’s “power kick,” which allows them to penetrate the egg, fertilization cannot happen. Polina Lishko of the University of California, Berkeley says that to activate this power kick, the female hormone progesterone binds to a specific protein on the sperm’s surface. If researchers could block this protein, it would essentially make a man infertile. "The ideal target for a contraceptive, whether it is male or female, would be a protein which is uniquely-expressed." For a male contraceptive, the protein it would target would be expressed only in a sperm cell. The idea behind this is that it would reduce the risk of side effects. In the male body, progesterone levels are low, so blocking the protein responsible for this power kick would likely not cause unwanted effects. "If you block the activity of this protein, it would be the same as the absence of the protein." Lishko says that additional studies will be needed to confirm this.
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