Federica Lopes
Reproductive biologist and Lecturer at the University of Dundee who studies how chemotherapy damages the immature testis and ovary, with the aim of protecting the future fertility of children treated for cancer
Lecturer, Diabetes, Endocrinology and Reproductive Biology, School of Medicine, University of Dundee · earlier research at the University of Edinburgh (Biomedical Sciences and MRC Centre for Reproductive Health, papers 2013–2022)
Federica Lopes was senior author of the 2026 Atlas study (JIB2026) that tested whether rapamycin, a drug that switches off mTOR, could protect sperm-precursor cells from cisplatin. In female fertility models, earlier reports had suggested that rapamycin keeps egg-cell precursors in a resting state and so spares them from chemotherapy. In this study, done on a mouse spermatogonial cell line (GC6-spg) in a dish, rapamycin gave no protection. The finding warns against assuming that a fertility-sparing drug which helps the ovary will also help the testis.
The question fits a long line of Lopes's own work. At the University of Edinburgh, working with Norah Spears and Rod Mitchell, Lopes cultured whole prepubertal mouse testes and ovaries and exposed them to cancer drugs at doses seen in patients. These studies showed that the irinotecan metabolite SN38 killed germ cells in the young testis but spared the ovary (2016), that carboplatin is no less damaging to young gonads than the older drug cisplatin (2020), and that a single exposure to cisplatin or doxorubicin harms spermatogonial stem cells and lowers sperm production weeks later (2020). Work on human fetal and prepubertal testis tissue then showed that the supporting Sertoli cells survive platinum drugs, which keeps open the option of restoring fertility by stem-cell transplant (2022).
Lopes is now a Lecturer in Diabetes, Endocrinology and Reproductive Biology at the University of Dundee School of Medicine, where the university lists a PhD project on fertility preservation for boys with cancer. Recent Dundee papers also cover embryo culture conditions in the IVF laboratory (2025) and access to fertility care in low- and middle-income countries (2024).
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | M | Rapamycin co-exposure fails to reduce cisplatin-induced damage in GC6-spg spermatogonial cell line. JIB2026 Senior author: led the Dundee study showing that rapamycin did not protect a mouse spermatogonial cell line from cisplatin damage. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 1
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Federica Lopes.
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- Wafiya Jibrin Researcher at the University of Dundee School of Medicine who led a 2026 cell-culture test of whether rapamycin can shield sperm-precursor cells from the cancer drug cisplatin
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