{"id":237416,"date":"2026-05-19T22:05:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T03:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/a-dna-organizing-protein-offers-new-insight-into-infertility-ivf-and-generational-health"},"modified":"2026-05-19T22:05:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T03:05:24","slug":"a-dna-organizing-protein-offers-new-insight-into-infertility-ivf-and-generational-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/a-dna-organizing-protein-offers-new-insight-into-infertility-ivf-and-generational-health","title":{"rendered":"A DNA-organizing protein offers new insight into infertility, IVF and generational health"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/a-dna-organizing-protein-offers-new-insight-into-infertility-ivf-and-generational-health2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The causes of male infertility can be hard to diagnose, with many tests failing to detect genetic defects. Sometimes, infertility doesn\u2019t even involve the genes themselves. It can arise from improper folding of the father\u2019s DNA in the sperm. If a couple conceives, this mispackaged DNA can damage the lifelong health of the child.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPaternal health is critical to sperm quality and the health of the offspring,\u201d said Satoshi Namekawa, a professor of microbiology and molecular genetics. \u201cUnderstanding the packing and folding of DNA in sperm cells is a fundamental question in modern biology.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Namekawa and Ph.D. student Yu-Han Yeh have now unveiled an important new piece of this puzzle. They have identified a protein, called DAXX, that guides how sperm DNA is organized. DAXX silences thousands of genes so they don\u2019t interfere with reproduction. It also keeps a handful of crucial genes turned on\u2014shaping the delicate, early stages of embryonic development. <a href=\"https:\/\/genesdev.cshlp.org\/content\/early\/2026\/04\/13\/gad.353435.125.abstract\" target=\"_blank\">The work<\/a> was published recently in Genes &amp; Development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The causes of male infertility can be hard to diagnose, with many tests failing to detect genetic defects. Sometimes, infertility doesn\u2019t even involve the genes themselves. It can arise from improper folding of the father\u2019s DNA in the sperm. If a couple conceives, this mispackaged DNA can damage the lifelong health of the child. \u201cPaternal [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,412,1495],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-genetics","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237416\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}