Origins of this Project

The Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) has been funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to research Women’s and Children’s Health, focusing on the advancement of drug discovery in reproductive biology and disease, child development, and childhood diseases. The SGC plans to generate protein reagents and chemical probes for several potential drug targets for new, safe and effective non-hormonal contraceptives.

Contraceptives allow informed choices about family planning. Research into non-hormonal contraceptives is important due to concerns over the safety and side effects of current hormonal methods.

One promising protein target is human phospholipase C zeta 1 (PLCζ1).