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A breakthrough by Otago University scientists could change the way infertility is treated.
Researchers there have shown, for the first time, the crucial ovulation-triggering role of a small protein molecule in the brain, dubbed kisspeptin.
An Otago group led by Professor Allan Herbison of the physiology department, in collaboration with Cambridge University researchers, has published the first evidence that kisspeptin signalling in the brain is also essential for ovulation to occur in adults.
"Targeting drugs to this chemical switch ... may help some people who are infertile, while finding compounds that can block this switch could lead to new contraceptives."
