Event

Gunda Georg

University of Minnesota

Discovery and development of a male pill by targeting the retinoid signaling pathway with YCT-529 for effective, reversible oral contraception

To lower the high levels of unintended pregnancies observed worldwide, additional effective contraceptive methods for women and men are desirable. Multiple contraceptive methods are available for women; however, male contraception options are limited to condom use and vasectomy. A novel male birth control method would provide an alternate method for family planning and lessen the gender gap in contraceptive responsibility. Hormonal male contraceptives have been investigated for many years, but no drug has reached the market yet. Therefore, investigations have been initiated in several laboratories to discover non-hormonal contraceptive agents. The talk will discuss the discovery and development of a selective retinoic acid receptor alpha antagonist, including preclinical efficacy studies of the clinical candidate YCT-529 in mouse and non-human primates and initial results from the first non-hormonal male contraceptive to reach the clinical stage.

Bio: Dr. Georg is a Regents Professor and the Institute for Therapeutics Discovery and Development (ITDD) founding Director at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy. She holds the Robert Vince Endowed Chair and the McKnight Presidential Chair in Medicinal Chemistry. She was the Head of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Minnesota from 2007-2022. She was the Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (2011-2020), the most cited journal in medicinal chemistry. In 2020, she won the Alfred Burger Award in Medicinal Chemistry from the American Chemical Society and was elected to the American Chemical Society Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame in 2017. She is an AAAS Fellow and a Fellow of the American Chemical Society. She has received the Ernest H. Volwiler Research Achievement Award of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, the Sato Memorial International Award of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan, the University of Minnesota Academy for Excellence in Health Research, and others. In 2023, she received the Carl Mannich Medal of the German Pharmaceutical Society (DPhG) for her research achievements.
    Dr. Georg received a BS in pharmacy (1975) and a PhD in medicinal chemistry (1980) from Philipps University in Marburg, Germany.  She was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Ottawa in Canada and started her independent career at the University of Kanas in 1984. She joined the University of Minnesota in 2007.  Her research focuses on designing, synthesizing, and evaluating biologically active agents. Current major therapeutic areas are focused on cancer and male contraception. 
    She is the co-inventor of the FDA-approved marketed anesthetic Lusedra® (Eisai Pharma). She is a co-inventor of Minnelide, an anticancer agent in phase I and phase II clinical trials; QLS-101, a glaucoma drug licensed to Qlaris Bio, which is in phase I/II clinical trials; and a non-hormonal male contraceptive agent (YCT-529) licensed to Your Choice Therapeutics, which entered clinical trials in December 2023. 
    Prof. Georg has been funded by NIH without interruption since 1984. She has led major research programs as the PI of a 10-year NIH-funded COBRE Center for Cancer for Experimental Therapeutics at the University of Kansas that supported the careers of junior faculty in Kansas. She was the PI of an NIH-supported U54 Contraceptive Discovery, Development, and Behavioral Research Center (2017-2021) that involved five research groups from Columbia University, Harvard University, the University of Michigan, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and the Moffitt Cancer Center. Currently, she is the PI of the University of Minnesota NExT Chemical Biology Consortium, an international consortium selected by the NCI to develop novel cancer therapeutics; she is the PI of an R21 grant and an R61 grant, two grants from the Male Contraceptive Initiative, one NIH R01 grant (MPI), one major research contracts (MPI) from the NIH (NICHD), a R24 STTR grant (MPI) and co-investigator on a NIH R33 grant. 
    Dr. Georg’s work is described in 270 publications. Her work has been cited 13021 times; she has an h-index of 61 and i10 index of 231 (December 2024). She has trained about 150 PhD and post-doctoral students, most of whom have pursued careers in the pharmaceutical industry. Currently, she is an advisor to 15 graduate students. She is involved in professional organizations, including the American Chemical Society and the AAAS. She is elected 2024 Chair of the Medicinal Chemistry (MEDI) Division of the American Chemical Society. She has served many years as a grant reviewer on NIH study sections for the NSF, AAAS, and other international funding agencies and research foundations. She is a member of advisory boards for several scientific journals and universities.