# Derivation of Functional Spermatogonia Stem Cells from Rhesus Macaque iPSCs

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA · 2021 · $712,382

## Abstract

Summary
Currently, ~15% of couples worldwide and ~12% of men in the United States are subfertile or infertile. Some
root causes for this infertility lie in genetic defects, but others are due to exposure to industrial and environmental
toxicants, injury, or medical treatments such as alkylating chemotherapies which almost always result in sterility,
especially in men. Male pre-pubertal cancer patients are especially at risk since they are unable to provide a
semen sample prior to their cancer treatments. Fertility preservation in pre-pubertal pediatric cancer patients is
an emerging and ever-evolving field. However treatment options are limited. Since 1980, Assisted Reproductive
Technology (ART) has gained worldwide acceptance and Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) has since
aided couples with severe infertility to achieve pregnancies. However, these advanced techniques require the
production of even a small amount of functional gametes. For those individuals rendered sterile by non-genetic
root causes unable to produce gametes, such as pediatric cancer survivors, there are no cures for their infertility.
As the incidences of pediatric cancers, including testicular and germ cell cancers, continue to rise, there is a
need for the development of novel stem-cell based therapies to treat male factor infertility in patients rendered
sterile by medical treatments. Patient-specific pluripotent stem cells represent one future potential source to
restore fertility by generating germline precursors such as spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) in vitro that can
restore fertility in vivo following transplantation. This therapeutic approach would allow infertile men to produce
offspring with their partners without having to use advanced reproductive technologies such as ICSI. Our team
has pioneered the ability to transplant autologous and donor rhesus SSCs into recipient rhesus testes to re-
colonize the testis and restore fertility. Additionally, our group was the first group to derive SSC-like cells from
human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Here, we hypothesize that NHP iPSC-derived SSCs can be
transplanted into sterilized autologous recipient testes to restore fertility. Furthermore, we hypothesize that sperm
generated from transplanted recipients can produce healthy embryos and offspring. This proposal under PAR-
16-093 Improvement of Animal Models for Stem Cell-based Regenerative Medicine (R01) will determine, using
a non-human primate stem cell model, whether iPSCs can be utilized to treat male factor infertility.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10187673
- **Project number:** 5R01OD028223-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Charles A. Easley
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $712,382
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-09 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10187673

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10187673, Derivation of Functional Spermatogonia Stem Cells from Rhesus Macaque iPSCs (5R01OD028223-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10187673. Licensed CC0.

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