A CHU HELORA-UMONS co-funded thesis explore
Recipient of the grant co-funded by CHU HELORA and UMONS, Sammy Ellatiff will carry out his research at the interface of several disciplines, as part of a project devoted to non-hormonal male contraception. Today, the methods available to men remain limited to condoms and vasectomy, highlighting the need for new approaches.
Supervised by Amandine Nachtergael, thesis supervisor and Head of the Department of Therapeutic Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, and by Elise Hennebert, a researcher in the Department of Cell Biology, the thesis will also draw on the clinical expertise of Dr Jean-François Simon, from the Fertility Clinic of CHU HELORA.
“This project is part of a multidisciplinary approach, combining phytochemistry, cell biology and access to ethnobotanical data,” says Amandine Nachtergael.
“The work is based on the analysis of various functional parameters of human spermatozoa, such as motility and capacitation,” explains Elise Hennebert.
A plant studied for its effects on male fertility
The project focuses on a medicinal plant whose extracts have shown effects on male fertility in previous studies. The objective is to identify compounds capable of modifying essential sperm functions, such as motility or fertilising capacity.
The experiments will be carried out using spermatozoa collected within the Fertility Clinic of CHU HELORA. The approach is based on phenotypic screening, which consists of observing the overall effects of molecules on cells before identifying their biological targets. This strategy makes it possible to explore mechanisms that remain poorly documented.
“Better understanding contraception also means better understanding natural reproduction. This conviction guides work that has been underway for many years in the field of fertility. By deepening our knowledge of the mechanisms that make fertilisation possible — or not — we are addressing complex biological phenomena, some of which remain partly mysterious. Opening the project to the Faculty of Pharmacy, through the study of a plant, marks an important step in this interdisciplinary dynamic,” says Dr Jean-François Simon, Head of the Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics at the Mons and Warquignies sites of CHU HELORA and Professor at UMONS.
By combining fundamental research and clinical expertise, this thesis illustrates the strength of the partnership between CHU HELORA and UMONS. It opens up new perspectives in a field that still remains largely to be explored.
