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The global overpopulation of stray cats and dogs, as well as certain wild and invasive species, poses major challenges for animal welfare, public health, and ecosystem conservation. Surgical sterilization, relocation, culling, and immunocontraception are the primary methods currently used to control animal populations. However, depending on the target species, these approaches may be difficult to implement on a large scale, lack long-term effectiveness, or raise important ethical concerns.

Our laboratory develops long-lasting injectable contraceptive strategies for animal population control.

A major focus of our research is gene therapy. This approach consists of delivering, through a single injection, a therapeutic gene that enables the patient’s own cells to produce a therapeutic protein for several years. Already used in human medicine to treat genetic diseases once considered incurable, gene therapy is now creating new opportunities in veterinary medicine.

Our non-surgical sterilization strategy uses gene therapy to induce the animal’s skeletal muscles to produce Anti-Müllerian Hormone (AMH). In adult females, AMH is normally produced exclusively by the ovaries and acts as a negative regulator of ovarian follicle growth, the structures that contain oocytes. Following a single injection, the treated animal’s muscles continuously produce high circulating levels of AMH, suppressing ovarian follicle development for several years. We have demonstrated that this approach provides long-term prevention of ovulation and fertility in both mice and domestic cats.

In the short term, our laboratory aims to optimize the feline contraceptive and further characterize the effects of sustained high AMH levels on the female reproductive system. Our research combines cell and follicle culture models with in vivo studies to investigate the mechanism of action, safety, and contraceptive efficacy of our therapies. In the longer term, we aim to develop injectable contraceptives for additional animal species and explore new gene therapy–based strategies for reproductive management.

Our laboratory enthusiastically welcomes undergraduate and graduate students, as well as research trainees, interested in projects at the interface of animal reproduction, ovarian physiology, gene therapy, molecular biology, and translational veterinary medicine.