Program of Research
The program of research we will undertake has two major components:
- The first is a comprehensive assessment of how a man's age affects specific elements of his sperm's nuclei and his fertility status; we will focus on aspects that are likely to have major consequences on his fertility and may impact on his progeny. These human studies will focus on parameters that we can assess in ejaculated spermatozoa since these are the germ cells that are routinely available. (P Chan, MD, A Leader, MD, MC Léveillé, PhD, and R Graveline, PhD)
- Since there is strong eviden ce that increasing age affects germ line stem cells, our second objective is to pursue animal studies using a rat model to elucidate the effects of age on isolated enriched germ stem cells; these experiments will provide information about the mechanism by which aging affects germ cell quality. (B Robaire, PhD, and A Noblanc, PhD)
