Toronto, November 16, 2021 – The Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) is pleased to announce its inaugural initiative in reproductive biology, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This initiative will be the first in SGC’s new open science Women’s and Children’s Health Program, focusing on the advancement of the field of drug discovery in reproductive biology and disease, child development, and childhood diseases. Aled Edwards, SGC founder and CEO, commented on the initiative, stating, "the SGC is excited to help advance research and drug discovery in this much neglected area, and is delighted to receive funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to do so.”

With funding from the foundation, the SGC will characterize proteins that might be the targets of new, safe, and effective non-hormonal contraceptive agents, with the broader goal of empowering women to make informed choices about family planning. Specifically, the SGC will generate high quality protein reagents and chemical probes - Target Enabling Packages (TEPs) - for a portfolio of proteins that are potential drug targets for new contraceptives.In building on the organization’s unique and diverse sets of expertise, this initiative will support and connect post-doctoral scientists at its partner universities, including the University of Toronto, University of North Carolina and Chapel Hill, Karolinska Institute, Goethe University Frankfurt, McGill University and University College London.

In its ongoing commitment to open science and to enable more rapid development of non-hormonal contraception alternatives, scientists within the SGC network will waive any interests in intellectual property for this initiative, making all reagents available rapidly to the research community, from trusted suppliers, and with no restriction on use.

Increasing contraceptive options for women, through the development of new methods that better align with women’s preferences, can help vulnerable women in low-resource settings, and all women seeking non-hormonal contraceptives for health-related reasons. Drug discovery initiatives of this kind are leading the way towards achieving remarkable medicine advancements.