E-Mail This Article to a Friend Sex machinery Massachusetts is at the forefront of cutting-edge sex research. Who knew? BY DEIRDRE FULTON

WITH ONE Remaining strip club, and only two underwhelming college porn mags to take up the slack, Greater Boston seems at risk of reviving its prudish reputation. But it turns out that at least some Bay Staters spend most of their days thinking about sex, sperm, and things salacious — they just do it in laboratories, and they keep their clothes on.

On the surface, much of today’s sexual research isn’t that sexy — unless you consider impotence, testosterone levels, or birth control hot stuff. But some recent projects here in Massachusetts stand to make sex better, and others could make sex safer. Both are welcome developments.

University of Massachusetts Medical School: The male Pill

To understand the latest development in birth control, think back to middle-school health-class videos in which an army of sperm cells would swim the long journey from a woman’s vagina to her uterus, and, once there, bombard an egg until one sperm succeeded in fertilizing it. In the 1960s, scientists discovered that they could thwart that scenario by using a combination of hormones to suppress ovulation, and to that end, millions of women around the world remind themselves daily to pop "The Pill."

Now, researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS), in Worcester, think they’ve found the key to a male version of the contraceptive pill: they have identified the protein that drives sperm cells’ ability to swim. A drug that disables this protein, therefore, would prevent conception by rendering sperm immobile, unable to travel to the uterus and fertilize an egg. Eventually, the sperm would simply be flushed from the woman’s body. Though new drugs can take more than a decade to reach the market, this one took a step toward pharmacy counters last month when UMMS signed an agreement with SpermaTech, a Norwegian biotech company. Under the terms of the deal, SpermaTech will now begin screening thousands of chemical compounds to determine which combinations would directly target the key protein.

It’s a exciting advance for Dr. George Witman, a UMMS professor and leader in the field of cell motility, whose laboratory discovered the protein (which he named "Cs"). "Men right now, what are their options?" Witman asks. "They’ve got condoms, coitus interruptus, and vasectomy. And none of those are ideal — and this potentially could be."

Witman spent almost 20 years pinpointing the Cs protein, which is found only in sperm cells — and he says that its specificity will reduce the risk of undesirable side effects once a drug is created. Unlike hormone-based contraceptives, which can affect the entire body (hormone-based female contraceptives, such as Ortho Tri-Cyclen, frequently induce the familiar side effects of cramping, bloating, moodiness, and so on), a contraceptive that inhibits Cs functioning would affect only the sperm cells, presumably resulting in far fewer undesired consequences. Other forays into male birth-control options have used hormonal approaches.

Of course, this development has social as well as scientific implications. Should the drug end up on the market, it will allow men to shoulder a task long reserved for women.

"Right now, there are so few options for men who want to take responsibility for contraception," says Erin Rowland, communications director for Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts. "The more options you have, the more likely you’re going to find something that’s right for everyone. And it’s a new way for men to really participate in the contraception decision-making process."

Boston University’s Institute of Sexual Medicine: Penis peril

If you’re a male looking forward to long bike rides in the balmy spring weather, beware of jeopardizing your ability to enjoy everyone’s favorite indoor sport. Researchers at Boston University’s Institute of Sexual Medicine have found that bike riding for more than three hours a week, while certainly good cardiovascular exercise, can damage the vascular health of the penis. In other words, bikers may have a harder time getting it up.

"Copying the riders of the Tour de France is probably not a wise thing to do if you like having sexual activity," says institute director and Journal of Sexual Medicine editor Dr. Irwin Goldstein, referring to the increasing popularity of racing-style cycling and the decreasing inclination toward more-leisurely bike rides and wider seats.

The institute studied about 40 male bikers, all of whom were already experiencing erectile dysfunction. After studying blood flow to the penis in a variety of situations — while patients were lying down, standing normally, sitting on the edge of an examination table, sitting on a wide bike seat, and sitting on a racing-style "long-nose" bike saddle — Goldstein and his associates were able to record blood flow in every situation but the last. When a man sits on today’s popular bike seats, his weight puts an intense amount of pressure on the tiny surface area Goldstein refers to as the perianal-saddle interface ("Where the rubber meets the road in bicycle riding," he says), impeding normal blood flow to the penis.