Rehfeld Group

The overarching goal of my research group is to enable all young men and women in the reproductive age to be in full control of their own fertility, i.e., such that they are 1) able to obtain the number of healthy children they desire without the need for assisted reproductive treatment, and 2) are able prevent unwanted pregnancies using non-hormonal contraceptives that meet their needs.

Unfortunately, we are currently far away from this scenario. Fertility rates are declining globally in parallel with a rise in infertility, the most common disease among young women and men affecting >17 % of adults. Alarmingly, the etiology remains unknown in >33 % of the cases and treatment options do not meet users’ needs. Furthermore, about half of all pregnancies worldwide are still unintended and the contraceptive options of today do not adequately meet the needs of the users, as males are left with very few choices, i.e., condoms and vasectomy, while most female options are hormone-based and cause unwanted side-effects.

My group focus on research addressing these issues through translational and collaborative projects encompassing human cohort studies, in vitro studies on human sperm cells, ex vivo studies on human testicular tissue,  ex vivo studies on human ovarian tissue, and in vivo studies using relevant animal models.

• Pharmaceutical use in women and fertility: an interdisciplinary approach
• Development of an unisex contraceptive through inhibition of the human sperm CatSper Ca(2+)-channel 

Find all Anders Rehfelds publications at Google Scholar.

• Timo Strünker, Centre of Reproductive Medicine and Andrology, University of Münster, Germany.
• Romain Barrés, Director of Research, CNRS Institute of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, France.
• Jesper V. Olsen, Executive Director, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Prof. Bo Hjorth-Bentzen, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Prof. Christian M. Pedersen, Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Prof. Anders Bach, Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark​.
• David Møbjerg Kristensen, Institut for Naturvidenskab og Miljø, Roskilde Universitet.
• Prof. Martin Hansen, Department of Environmental Science, AAU.
• Anders Husby, Statens Serum Institut.