Jeffrey T. Jensen

Jeffrey Jensen's clinical experience in family planning inspires his dedication to the development of new methods of contraception. He and his staff focus on translational research designed to bring the advances of the lab into clinical practice. Building on research in rodents, Jensen's group has documented that the phosphodiesterase (PDE) 3 inhibitor, ORG 9935, can prevent maturation of the oocyte both in the culture dish and during stimulated ovarian cycles, and can act as a contraceptive in breeding groups of macaques. It has the advantage of being a nonhormonal strategy that does not affect menstrual cycles. Future experiments in monkeys are needed to determine if the approach is feasible in women. Additional studies with novel inhibitors of oocyte maturation are in progress in the lab as part of the NICHD Contraceptive Research Development Center at ONPRC. Dr Jensen is a Co-Principal Investigator of this grant that is investigating the biology of several highly specific and novel contraceptive strategies, and testing promising applications in the breeding groups.

Globally, surgical sterilization is the most common and effective method of birth control. Because access to this important method is limited by its high cost, the scarcity of providers, and certain surgical risks, particularly in lesser-developed nations, there is a need for a non-surgical method of sterilization. A number of chemical agents have been evaluated for that role, but only quinacrine has been tested in humans. The World Health Organization has placed a moratorium on funding further clinical quinacrine studies, pending more animal studies of its long-term safety. Jensen has investigated Polidocanol, a synthetic, long-chain, fatty alcohol used as a sclerosing agent, for its potential in non-surgical sterilization.  Experiments in progress funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are exploring the potential of nonsurgical sterilization using the nonhuman primate model. 

Biography

Jeffrey T. Jensen is a Senior Scientist in the Division of Reproductive & Developmental Sciences, Leon Speroff Professor and Vice Chair for Research, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology in the School of Medicine, OHSU, and Director of the Women's Health Research Unit of the Center for Women's Health at OHSU. He completed medical school at Emory University (1984), an internship at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center (1985), and residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at OHSU (1988) before entering active duty military service in the United States Navy. He became a member of the OHSU faculty in 1992. Jensen received a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Washington in 1997, and he joined the ONPRC staff in 1999 as a Women's Reproductive Health Research Fellow.

Key Publications

Jensen JT. The future of contraception: innovations in contraceptive agents: tomorrow's hormonal contraceptive agents and their clinical implications. Am J Obstet Gynecol, 2011;205(4 Suppl):S21-25. PMID:21961821

Jensen JT, Stouffer RL, Stanley JE, Zelinski MB. Evaluation of the phosphodiesterase 3 inhibitor ORG 9935 as a contraceptive in female macaques: initial trials. Contraception, 2010;81(2):165-171. PMCID: PMC2813210

Hanna CB, Yao S, Patta MC, Jensen JT, Wu X. WEE2 is an oocyte-specific meiosis inhibitor in rhesus macaque monkeys. Biol Reprod, 2010;82(6):1190-1197. PMCID: PMC2874501

Hanna CB, Yao S, Patta MC, Jensen JT, Wu X. Expression of insulin-like 3 (INSL3) and differential splicing of its receptor in the ovary of rhesus macaques. Reprod Biol Endocrinol, 2010;8:150. PMCID: 3008693