NORDFERTIL Research Lab Uppsala (PI: J.B. Stukenborg)
Our group studies how male germ cells develop, how medical therapies affect fertility, and safeguarding boys and men at risk of infertility.
Reproductive Biology & Fertility Preservation
Our group studies how male germ cells develop, how cancer treatments and other medical therapies affect fertility, and how we can safeguard future reproductive and hormonal health in boys and men at risk of infertility.
We are part of the Department of Organismal Biology at Uppsala University and closely linked to the Childhood Cancer Research Unit at Karolinska Institutet. Together, and with the support of our collaborators, these labs form a Nordic hub for experimental and translational research in male reproductive biology and fertility preservation.
Why fertility preservation in boys?
Survival after childhood cancer has improved dramatically over the past decades, with around three out of four children now cured of their disease. However, many of the life-saving treatments can damage the testes and permanently impair fertility. Pubertal boys can usually freeze sperm before treatment, but prepubertal boys do not yet produce sperm and currently have no established clinical options to preserve their fertility.
Yet these boys do have spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) in their testes – the cells that will later give rise to sperm. Understanding how to protect, store and eventually use these cells is essential if boys treated for cancer or other gonadotoxic conditions are to have a realistic chance of fathering biological children as adults.
To address this challenge, the Nordic Centre for Fertility Preservation (NORDFERTIL) was founded as a joint effort by scientists and clinicians across the Nordic and Baltic countries. NORDFERTIL aims to preserve future fertility and hormonal function in boys with cancer or other disorders threatening testicular function, by combining basic research, experimental models and clinical studies (see also www.nordfertil.org).
Our Uppsala-based team is a core part of this effort, coordinating the experimental research of the network.
For prospective partners
Our work addresses a rapidly growing and societally important population: survivors of childhood and young-adult cancer, as well as boys and men with other conditions threatening gonadal function. By combining basic cell biology with clinically anchored research and active involvement in international guideline development, we are uniquely positioned to:
- Define evidence-based protocols for testicular tissue collection and cryopreservation in boys at risk of infertility.
- Develop scalable, human-relevant in vitro models (organoids, scaffold-based cultures, organ-on-chip) for studying spermatogenesis, endocrine disruption and testicular toxicity.
- Inform future clinical trials of fertility-restoring strategies, while carefully addressing safety issues such as malignant cell contamination and genetic/epigenetic integrity.
This research directly contributes to improving long-term quality of life for childhood cancer survivors and others at risk of treatment-induced infertility, while also advancing fundamental knowledge in developmental and reproductive biology.