At UZ Brussel the researchers of the Biology and Testes (BITE) research group have been studying for years on how to help prepubertal boys who have to undergo sterilising cancer treatment to preserve their fertility.Through experimental study we want to find out if we can culture, transplant and mature spermatogonial cells in vitro. This means that a piece of testicular tissue that was frozen before the cancer treatment is thawed and transplanted later, to make sure that it would form sperm cells when the boy has become an adult.In the meantime our researchers have succeeded, with a special technique, in partially or fully resuming sperm cell production. This obviously opens perspectives. For humans no result of the technique is known so far, but with a breakthrough impending, more and more research centres all over the world are banking prepubertal testicular tissue.Do you want to find out more about the biology of the testes? Click BITE (in English).