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When it comes to birth control options for women, little has changed in the past couple of decades. In fact, according to Planned Parenthood,\u00a0<\/span>there are only three\u00a0<\/span>birth control methods that are over 95 percent effective at preventing an unintended pregnancy: the birth control implant, the intrauterine device (IUD), and the birth control shot. All of them require time at a doctor\u2019s office, and none of them protect against getting or spreading sexually transmitted infections. The \u201cnewest\u201d of the trio\u2014the Depo-Provera shot\u2014started to become available to women in the 1990s.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a need for good on-demand nonhormonal contraceptives,\u201d says\u00a0<\/span>Deborah Anderson, a Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine professor of medicine. An expert in immunology and reproductive health, Anderson leads BU\u2019s Contraceptive Research Center, which is one of only three\u00a0<\/span>federally mandated\u00a0<\/span>contraceptive labs in the country. This year, the center received a $7.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health\u2019s National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to continue developing a new breed of contraceptives and STI-prevention products. The four-year award will support Anderson\u2019s work on the use of monoclonal antibodies\u2014lab-made proteins that act like the body\u2019s natural antibody defense system\u2014as a means of protection. She calls her manufactured antibodies \u201cplantibodies,\u201d because they\u2019re grown in tobacco plants.<\/p>\n Her team\u2019s lab-made contraceptive and STI-prevention antibodies, though far away from hitting the shelves of your local pharmacy, have been under development for more than a decade, with promising results coming from the\u00a0<\/span>first phases of clinical trials\u00a0<\/span>last year.<\/p>\n \u201cOur ultimate goal is to have a contraceptive that also protects women against sexually transmitted infections,\u201d Anderson says.<\/p>\n \n