Inaugural Hanzlik Memorial Lecture honors legacy while spotlighting current male contraception research
LAWRENCE - The University of Kansas School of Pharmacy launched a new lecture series honoring the legacy of Dr. Robert P. Hanzlik, a longtime KU professor whose work in medicinal chemistry and toxicology helped define the discipline and shape generations of researchers.
The inaugural Robert P. Hanzlik Memorial Lecture was delivered on April 2, 2026, by Dr. Gunda I. Georg, a former KU faculty member who worked alongside Hanzlik for more than two decades in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry. She maintained a close personal friendship with him throughout his career and retirement.
Hanzlik spent his entire academic career at KU, earning national recognition for his research in drug metabolism and toxicology while also serving as department chair and mentoring students and junior faculty. His decision to remain at KU reflected a deep commitment to his department and to the university.
“He had the opportunity to leave and go to other places, but he decided to have his entire career at KU,” Georg said. “He deeply cared about the department and the people there.”
Georg, the first woman faculty member in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, described Hanzlik as a supportive colleague who invested innumerable time and energy in helping others succeed. Beyond his own lab, he played a key role in strengthening KU’s biomedical research enterprise, including securing major research funding that benefited the wider university.
In opening the lecture, Georg emphasized the importance of remembering Hanzlik’s scientific contributions. Many of these contributions have become so foundational that they are often taken for granted.
While the lecture honored Hanzlik’s legacy, it also highlighted emerging work at the forefront of medicinal chemistry. Georg’s talk focused on her team’s efforts to develop a non‑hormonal, reversible oral contraceptive for men, a goal that has remained elusive despite decades of research.
Developing any new drug is difficult, Georg explained, but contraceptives present a distinct challenge because they are taken by healthy people rather than prescribed to treat disease. That makes safety thresholds exceptionally high, and even modest side effects unacceptable.
“If you have a life‑threatening disease, you might take a drug that has some side effects,” Georg said. “But if you have a contraceptive and your hair falls out, I think it’s not going to go over very well.”
Georg’s research centers on YCT‑529, a first‑in‑class selective retinoic acid receptor alpha (RARα) antagonist. Rather than altering hormone levels, the compound targets a key signaling pathway required for sperm development.
In the testes, retinoic acid (a metabolite of vitamin A) plays a central role in regulating gene transcription during spermatogenesis. By selectively blocking RARα signaling, YCT‑529 interrupts specific stages of sperm production without affecting testosterone or other hormonal systems.
“When this is interrupted, there’s no sperm production,” Georg said.
Preclinical studies in mice and non‑human primates showed that treatment with YCT‑529 leads to temporary infertility. Importantly, normal sperm production resumes once the drug is discontinued, demonstrating reversibility. This a critical criterion for any contraceptive.
That reversibility, Georg said, was straightforward to demonstrate experimentally but essential for determining whether the compound could ever be viable for human use. Early‑phase clinical trials have so far shown no observable side effects.
“We have not observed any side effects whatsoever,” she said.
Beyond its immediate application in contraception, Georg noted that selectively targeting retinoid signaling may have broader therapeutic potential. Because retinoic acid plays roles in multiple biological systems, compounds like YCT‑529 could eventually be explored for other indications as well.
“You never know,” she said. “If it doesn’t work out with the contraception, we could do something else."
Georg emphasized that advances of this kind depend on close collaboration across scientific disciplines. This is a principle, she said, that has defined both her approach to research and Hanzlik’s philosophy as a faculty member.
Trained as a medicinal chemist, Georg said she relies on partnerships with pharmacologists, reproductive biologists, and clinicians to move compounds from early discovery through preclinical testing and into clinical trials.
“You’re not the expert in everything,” she said. “When you do these kinds of projects, you need to work with the people who are experts.”
For Georg, delivering the inaugural Hanzlik Memorial Lecture represented both a professional milestone and a personal tribute. She was for her longtime scientific collaboration with Hanzlik, but also because of the close friendship they shared.