Invited Speakers

Vicki Abrahams (New Haven, USA)
Vikki M. Abrahams, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at Yale University School of Medicine. She also holds an honorary lectureship with the Maternal and Fetal Health Research Center at The University of Manchester, UK. Dr Abrahams' research focuses primarily on the impact the immune system and immunological processes have on pregnancy. A major focus of her research is on the role of pattern recognition receptors in placental responses to infection.  In addition, the Abrahams lab is interested in the mechanisms by which autoimmune diseases effect pregnancy outcome, and in understanding the role of the immune system in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia.

John Aitken (Newcastle, Australia)
John Aitken is Laureate Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Newcastle, NSW, and Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Biotechnology and Development.  His primary interest is in the molecular mechanisms regulating the differentiation and function of male and female germ cells and the control of early embryonic development. His group has made a particular contribution to our understanding of sperm biochemistry and the role of free radical generation in the etiology of DNA damage and lost fertilizing potential in the male germ line.  In the course of these studies his group have become aware of the unique manner in which spermatozoa metabolize certain xenobiotics.  We are now using this information to develop spermostatic /microbiostatic reagents that differ from all others under consideration in that they are only activated on contact with semen.

Deborah J. Anderson (Boston, USA) 

Deborah J. Anderson, Ph.D. is Professor of Obstetrics/Gynecology and Microbiology, Boston University School of Medicine, and Lecturer in Medicine, Harvard Medical School.  Her research program addresses immunologic aspects of human reproductive health, and has contributed to advances in understanding immunological mechanisms underlying male and female infertility, recurrent miscarriage, preeclampsia, gynecologic oncology, and the sexual and vertical transmission of HIV-1. Deborah's current research is focused on the development of vaccines and topical microbicides for the control of sexually-transmitted pathogens including HIV-1. Towards this end, she is studying mechanisms of cell-associated HIV transmission and fundamental features of local immune defense functions at genital mucosal surfaces that affect HIV-1 pathogenesis and transmission.

Petra Clara Arck (Berlin, Germany)

 Dr. Petra Arck, MD, obtained her medical degree at the University of Tuebingen, where she also completed her medical doctoral thesis in 1994.
She completed research training in immunology at McMaster University in Hamilton and the University of Toronto, Canada. She became a full faculty member at the Charité, University Medicine Berlin, Germany in 2006 and was awarded with a Canada Research Chair in 2007. She currently holds a dual appointment at the Charité in Germany and McMaster University in Canada. Her research aims at identifying the role of environmental challenges, such as maternal stress perception and poor social support on reproductive outcome and children's health.

Ali Ashkar (Hamilton, Canada)
Ali A. Ashkar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, Institute for Infectious Disease Research, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada. The focus of his research interest is the role of innate immunity against microbial pathogens, particularly mucosal viral infections. One main area of research focuses on understanding how NK/NKT cells and IL-15 contribute to innate and adaptive immunity against infections in the genital mucosa. Another main focus of his research is to study the induction of innate immune system against viral infections by different Toll-like receptor ligands. His work is funded by CIHR and CBCF, Ontario chapter. Dr. Ashkar is the recipient of a Research Career Award in the Health Sciences from the Rx&D/CIHR

Ken Beagley (Brisbane, Australia)
Ken Beagley is a Professor of Immunology at the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation at Queensland University of Technology. He has worked in the area of mucosal immunology for the past 25 years at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and the University of Newcastle prior to moving to QUT. Current research interests focus on immunity to sexually transmitted infections, in particular Chlamydia trachomatis. The aim of these studies is to define and differentiate the immune parameters of immune-mediated inflammatory pathology caused by Chlamydia infection from the immune mechanisms that can protect against chlamydial infection and to use this information to develop effective chlamydial vaccines. This work involves the use of both mouse and guinea pig models of chlamydial infection and has recently been extended to include development of a chlamydial vaccine for the koala. In all of these studies novel needle-free vaccination routes such as intranasal and transcutaneous immunization, which target immunity to the female and male reproductive tracts are being evaluated alongside conventional injectable methods of immunization. 

Alexander Betz (Cambridge, UK)

Sandra Blois (Berlin, Germany)
Sandra Blois is a Habilitation Fellow at the Medicine University of Berlin. Her work focuses on immunological aspects of pregnancy. For the last 8 years, her research focus has been on dendritic cells (DC) and how special conditions of pregnancy might influence their functions. Current investigations performed by her group employ genetically modified mouse strains to characterize the functional cross talk between DC and natural killer (NK) cells at the materno-fetal interface. More recently, she has developed another project studying the expression and function of galectin proteins in the reproductive tract, some of which appear to be involved in both immunological tolerance and in facilitating angiogenesis during pregnancy.

Larry Chamley (Auckland, New Zealand)

Larry Chamley is an Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Auckland, New Zealand, where he heads a research group studying the biology and immunology of reproduction. Larry has a particular interest in the interactions between syncytial knots, multinucleated fragments of the syncytiotrophoblast, that are shed from the placenta into the maternal blood and the maternal vascular and immune systems and how these interactions may lead to maternal immune tolerance or preeclampsia. Larry’s group have shown that in normal pregnancy syncytial knots are produced by an apoptotic-like process and their phagocytosis is tolerogenic whilst phagocytosis of necrotic syncytial knots is proinflammatory.
Larry also researches the role of autoantibodies, especially antiphospholipid antibodies and antisperm antibodies, in causing diseases of pregnancy such as preeclampsia, as well as infertility.

Mickie Cheng (San Francisco, USA)
Dr. Mickie Cheng is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Diabetes Center and Division of Endocrinology at the University of California San Francisco.  In collaboration with Dr. Mark Anderson, her work has focused on the study of autoimmune ovarian disease (AOD), utilizing a novel mouse model of spontaneous oophoritis, the Aire knockout mouse.  Her research focuses on the identification of ovarian antigens and on characterization of the mechanisms that lead to the breakdown of immune tolerance in the ovary.  Parallel investigations of autoantibody profiles in patients with autoimmunity and ovarian insufficiency seek to identify relevant antigens in humans. Through the translation of antigenic targets from the animal model to patients affected with AOD or premature ovarian insufficiency, these studies have the potential to improve diagnostic testing and therapeutic intervention in human ovarian failure and infertility. 

Frans Claas (Leiden, The Netherlands)

Frans Claas, Ph.D, is director of the Eurotransplant Reference Laboratory and professor “Immunogenetics of transplantation” at the Leiden University Medical Center in Leiden, the Netherlands. He combines his work in the histocompatibility laboratory with research in the field of transplantation immunology. The main topics of his research are the differential immunogenicity of HLA mismatches in clinical transplantation and immune mechanisms leading to transplantation tolerance. As a successful pregnancy can be considered as nature’s model for immunological tolerance to the allogeneic foetus, he collaborates very closely with Dr. Sicco Scherjon of the department of Obstetrics on the phenotypic and functional characterization of  alloreactive T cells in the decidua.

Vicki Clifton (Adelaide, Australia)
Associate Professor Vicki Clifton is a NHMRC Senior Research Fellow and has been employed at the Robinson Institute, Department of Paediatrics and Reproductive Health at the University of Adelaide since January 2008 after many years at the Mothers and Babies Research Centre in Newcastle. She has been appointed as the Director of Clinical Research at the Lyell McEwin Hospital in Adelaide. A/Prof Clifton has a background in immunology, asthma, fetal growth, reproductive endocrinology and maternal and placental physiology. Her research has examined aspects of placental function which has evolved into an investigation of those factors that program fetal development and neonatal adaptation.

Gus Dekker (Adelaide, Australia)
Prof. Gus Dekker is currently the Clinical Director of the Women’s and Children’s Division Lyell McEwin Hospital, and also Clinical Associate Dean Adelaide University, Northern Campus. Gus received his medical training via the University of Leiden (MD Cum Laude 1978), followed by 3 years training in internal medicine (The Hague), and O&G specialist training via the Erasmus University Rotterdam, where he also finished his PhD Thesis Erasmus entitled ‘Prediction and Prevention of Pregnancy-Induced Hypertensive Disorders. A Clinical and Pathophysiologic Study’; this thesis also included the world’s first prospective RCT on low-dose Aspirin in the prevention of preeclampsia.  In 1998, Gus migrated to Adelaide as the new chair in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, at the University of Adelaide. His areas of specific interest include the genetics and immunology of preeclampsia, prediction and prevention of preeclampsia, prediction and management of preterm labour and the role of genetic and acquired thrombophilic disorders in the causation of adverse pregnancy outcome and cerebral palsy.

Betty Diamond (New York, USA)
Betty Diamond received an MD from Harvard Medical School in 1973.  She performed a residency in Internal Medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, and then a post-doctoral fellowship in Immunology with Dr. Matthew Scharff at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.  She has been the faculty at Einstein and Columbia and is currently Head of The Center for Autoimmune and Musculoskeletal Disease at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. Dr. Diamond’s primary interests are in the mechanisms of central and peripheral tolerance of autoreactive B cells, and the defects in these mechanisms that are present in autoimmune disease, and the role of antibodies in brain disease.

Eva Dimitriadis (Melbourne, Australia)
Eva Dimitriadis (PhD) is a Research Fellow of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia and heads the Embryo Implantation Laboratory at Prince Henry’s Institute.  Her research focus has been on determining the role of endometrial cytokines on endometrial receptivity and identifying the molecular mechanisms of endometrial-placental interactions.   A major focus of her work is to identify and determine the role of critical factors that cause diseases of pregnancy including infertility and preeclampsia.  Her group has made a major contribution in the development new non-hormonal contraceptives.     

Chen Dong  (Houston, USA)
Professor Chen Dong is the Professor of Immunology and Director, Center for Inflammation and Cancer at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.  He received his Ph.D from University of Alabama at Birminghan and his postdoctoral training was done at Yale University. His group is working to understand the molecular mechanisms governing T cell activation and function, with a focus on the cytokine and costimulatory molecule regulation of T cell phenotype commitment and differentiation. In addition, he is interested in understanding the roles of cytokines in inflammatory diseases and cancer.

Leonardo Fainboim (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Leonardo Fainboim received his MD at the University of Buenos Aires and is the  Head of the Immunogenetics Division at the Hospital de Clínicas, and Full Professor at the Department of Microbiology, at the School of Medicine of the Buenos Aires University (from 1985 until 2008), being at present Consultant Full Professor. He is also a Member of the Research Career of the National Council for Scientific and Research Activities (CONICET-Buenos Aires-Argentina). He has been co-founder, Vice-president, and President of the “Histocompatibility Argentine Association” (AAH), President of the Argentine Society of Immunology (SAI),Vice-president of the Latin American Society of Histocompatibility and Life-Advisor of the International HLA and Immunogenetics Workshops. Dr. Fainboim has published 95 refereed articles. He  is also the author of four editions of the book "Introduction to Human Immunology". Is Executive Editor for South America of "The Journal of Biological Regulators and Homeostatics Agents" and member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of  Reproductive Immunology.

Susan Fisher (San Francisco, USA)
Susan Fisher is a Professor in the Dept. of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine. She is jointly appointed in the Dept. of Anatomy. Dr. Fisher is the Director of the UCSF Human Embryonic Stem Cell Program and Faculty Director of the Sandler-Moore Mass Spectrometry Facility, which is a campus-wide technology core. She is a member of the Eli & Edythe Broad Center for Regeneration Medicine & Stem Cell Research at UCSF and the Center for Reproductive Sciences. Ongoing research projects in her lab include exploring the basic mechanisms involved in human placental development; devising new methods for deriving, propagating and studying human embryonic stem cell lines; and applying mass spectrometry-based approaches to compile protein catalogues with a particular focus on biomarker discovery. She has served on several NIH panels. Most recently she chaired the Reproductive Biology Study Section and was the principal co-organizer of the first Keystone Conference on Reproduction. Honors received during the last  ten years include the Sadler Award (NIH), 2000; an NIH MERIT Award, 2000; the UCSF Graduate Association Outstanding Mentor Award, 2002; the Anita Payne Lectureship (U. of Mich.), 2003; the UCSF School of Dentistry Faculty Research Award, 2004; and the Silbar Memorial Lectureship, 2007 (Northwestern University).

Ian Fraser (Sydney, Australia)
Ian Fraser is a Professor in Reproductive Medicine at the University of Sydney, and a Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility sub-specialist at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney.  He is a Past-President of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and is currently Honorary Secretary of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO).  He is a member of the International Committee for Contraception Research of the Population Council, New York. He gained his initial medical and specialist training in Edinburgh and Oxford, and now has a range of specialised clinical and laboratory research interests within reproductive medicine, specifically in the fields of menstrual disorders, endometriosis, contraception and menopause transition.  He has current major research interests into mechanisms of abnormal uterine bleeding and into endometrial function in endometriosis.  He has been responsible for over 400 original scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Guillermina Girardi (New York, USA)
Guillermina Girardi is an Associate Professor at York College, CUNY, New York, USA. Dr Girardi’s Lab studies the mediators and effector of pregnancy complications. The goal of her research is to understand the causes of immune mediated pregnancy complications like recurrent miscarriages, intrauterine growth restriction and preeclampsia. It is recognized that placental vascular insufficiency is a core feature in abnormal pregnancies. Dr Girardi’s efforts are aimed at understanding the role of inflammation and thrombosis as possible mediators of fetal and placental damage. A major focus is the function of tissue factor in pregnancy complications and her group has identified a novel pathway in which tissue factor expression on inflammatory cells induces placental injury and fetal death.

J Victor Garcia (Texas, USA)

Satish Gupta (New Delhi, India)
Dr. Satish Kumar Gupta is working as Senior Scientist at National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi. His initial work pertained to the immuno-biology of reproductive hormones such as hCG and GnRH. For the last 20 years, his group is involved in understanding the role of zona pellucida (ZP) glycoproteins during fertilization. These studies led to propose that in non-human primates and humans, in addition to ZP3, other zona proteins are also involved in sperm binding and induction of acrosome reaction. His group has assessed the enormous potential of ZP glycoproteins as candidate vaccines and has achieved curtailment of conception in non-human primates and female dogs. These homologous immunization studies enabled in-depth analysis of autoimmune disorder, if any, by immunization with self-proteins for immunocontraception. In addition, his group also played a major role in developing diagnostic kits for pregnancy, group-A streptococci and HIV. His current interest includes discovering novel plant extracts with anti-HIV activity for development of microbicide.

Akiko Hasegawa-Akatani (Nishinomiya, Japan)
Akiko Hasegawa-Akatani is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Hyogo College of Medicine, Japan. Her research interests include molecular mechanisms involved in immune infertility, particularly anti-sperm antibodies. In a longstanding collaboration with Prof. S. Isojima and Prof. K. Koyama she identified the CD52 molecule as a target antigen of anti-sperm antibodies detected in infertile women’s sera and characterized its molecular features. CD52 is also present in immune cells, however sperm CD52 has a specific carbohydrate antigen different from that in immune cells. Currently, her research group is examining the function of CD52 in reproduction and its application to contraceptive vaccine development.

Mark Hedger (Melbourne, Australia)
Mark Hedger’s undergraduate training was in Physiology and Biochemistry, and he received his PhD from Monash University in 1984. He was a NIH Visiting Fellow at the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences from 1984-1987 and is currently an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow and Associate Professor at Monash University. He is also the Deputy Director of the Centre for Reproduction and Development at the Monash Institute of Medical Research and President of the Society for Reproductive Biology. His main research interests are the mechanisms of immunoregulation in the testis and effects of inflammation and infection on male reproductive function, and the role of activin and its binding protein, follistatin, in the regulation of reproduction, inflammation and immunity. Contributions to the field include: discovery of the immunoregulatory functions of activin, the isolation and identification of novel immunosuppressive molecules in gonadal fluids, characterisation of the unique immunosuppressive phenotype of the testicular macrophages, identification of lymphocytes with regulatory phenotypes in the testicular interstitial tissue and the development of an in vivo model of testicular function during inflammation.

Paul Hertzog (Melbourne, Australia)
Professor Paul Hertzog is Director of the Centre for Innate Immunity and Infectious Disease at Monash Institute of Medical Research and NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow. His research interests include molecular mechanisms involved in regulating immune responses especially the interferon and TLR systems. To achieve this, Professor Hertzog has developed a multidisciplinary approach incorporating genetically modified murine models of disease, clinical studies, molecular details of signaling networks, regulation of gene expression and bioinformatics. Using these approaches Prof Hertzog’s group has elucidated the contributions of innate immunity to infectious and inflammatory disease, autoimmunity and cancer. His research program has been funded by the NHMRC (Australia), ARC, CRC, NIH and the State government of Victoria.  Prof. Hertzog has a keen interest in the translation of biomedical research, has founded spin-off companies and had long-standing collaborative projects and advisory positions with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. He was co-founder and convenor of the Monash and the Victorian Infection and Immunity Networks.

Louise Hull (Adelaide, Australia)
Dr Louise Hull is a gynaecologist, sub-specialising in reproductive endocrinology and infertility.  She has practised clinically and undertaken biomedical research in this field for more than 15 years in New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Australia. 
Louise developed a specialist interest in endometriosis while completing a PhD at Cambridge University in the UK.  As a Senior Lecturer at The Robinson Institute, University of Adelaide, Dr Hull currently leads the Endometriosis Research Group which conducts clinical and basic science research in this field.   Louise has published several high impact papers and has presented her prize winning work at international and national meetings. She supervises 2 PhD students, is an Associate Editor for Human Reproduction and is a member of the Fertility Society of Australia, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the World Endometriosis Society. This year, Louise was awarded a 5 year Practitioner Fellowship by the South Australian government.
Louise has an infertility and adolescent gynaecology clinical practise at Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide.  She is also a founding of Fertility SA a new infertility clinic in South Australia and is on the medical advisory board. 

Jeffrey A Keelan (Perth, Western Australia)
Jeff Keelan is Professor and Principal Research Fellow at the School of Women’s and Infants’ Health (UWA), Head of Women and Infants Health Research Labs at King Edward Memorial Hospital (KEMH) and Acting Director of the Women and Newborn Health Research Network at KEMH in Perth, WA. He has a long standing interest in inflammatory mediators and signalling in placental tissues and its role in preterm birth. More recently his major focus has been on the use of anti-inflammatory drugs, lipids and siRNA to block the pathways responsible for triggering inflammation-associated preterm labour. He also has an active programme studying the role of sphingolipids and lysophospholipids in trophoblast differentiation, the pharmacological and non-pharmacological role ABC transporters in the placenta, and the pathophysiology of novel placental adipokines in gestational diabetes. His most recent research initiative involves the placental uptake and transport of drug-bearing nanoparticles.

Joanne Kwak-Kim (Chicago, USA)
Dr. Kwak-Kim is an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Microbiology and Immunology, the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. Currently she serves as the Director at the Rosalind Franklin University Reproductive Medicine Center, which has the emphasis on treating infertility with implantation failures and recurrent spontaneous abortion of immune etiology. She is a world renowned researcher and clinician in the field of Reproductive Immunology.  She served as the president of American Society for Reproductive Immunology.  Currently she is serving as a Council member of International Society for Immunology of Reproduction. Her work in natural killer cell and Th1/Th2 immune responses in women with recurrent pregnancy losses and multiple implantation failure is well known.  She has authored numerous publications at prestigious journals and currently serves as the associate editor of American Journal of Reproductive Immunology.

Charu Kaushic (Hamilton, Canada)
Charu Kaushic is an Associate Professor in Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada.  Her research interest  is women’s reproductive health, specifically examining the effect of local microenvironment on interactions between female genital tract and sexually transmitted pathogens. Currently her lab is focused on examining susceptibility and immune responses to sexually transmitted viruses, HIV-1 and HSV-2, using in vivo mouse models and ex-vivo primary cell cultures. These studies have implications for both STD vaccines and other prophylactic approaches. Dr. Kaushic is a recipient of a number of national and international awards, including post-doctoral fellowship from The Rockefeller Foundation, Scholarship award from Ontario HIV Treatment Network, New Investigator Award from Canadian Institutes of Health Research and an Early Researcher’s Award from Ontario Government. She is actively involved in promoting reproductive immunology as a specialty and serves on executive council of American Society of Reproductive Immunology and on the editorial board of its journal.

Koji Koyama (Nishinomiya, Japan)
Professor Koji Koyama is the current President of the International Society for Reproductive Immunology.  He is internationally renowned for his work in sperm-egg interactions at the time of conception, in devising new immunocontraceptive vaccines targeting gamete antigens, and in pre-implantation genetic diagnosis.  He has published 126 research papers in the last 15 years, and has been recognized for his contribution to reproductive immunology by the Distinguished Service Award of The American Society for Reproductive Immunology (in 2007) and the Blackwell-Munksgaard Award of The American Society for Reproductive Immunology (in 2009). He is a past President and Director of the Japan Society for Immunology of Reproduction, and the Japan Society for Andrology.

Gendie Lash (Newcastle, United Kingdom)
Gendie Lash, PhD is a Team Scientist in the Reproductive and Vascular Biology Research Group in the Institute of Cellular Medicine, Newcastle University.  Her research interests have primarily focussed on the regulation of trophoblast invasion in normal early human pregnancy.  This research has expanded over the years into an interest in the functional role of uterine natural killer (uNK) cells in early human pregnancy, with particular focus on trophoblast invasion and the early stages of spiral artery remodeling.  A new area of research that is currently being explored in her laboratory is blood vessel development during the menstrual cycle in non-pregnant endometrium. 

Philippe Le Bouteiller (Toulouse, France)
Philippe Le Bouteiller, PhD, is Director of Research at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research at Toulouse, France. His main interest has focused on structural and functional studies of HLA class I genes, including the functions of soluble and membrane-bound HLA-G isoforms in human embryo implantation, pregnancy outcome, and placental development. His group was the first to discover the unexpected role of soluble HLA-G controling angiogenesis and to demonstrate the anti-angiogenic therapeutic efficacy of an agonist monoclonal antibody in various animal models of pathological neoangiogenesis. His groups is also studying the mechanisms of control of the cytotoxic effector function of freshly isolated NK cells from decidua basalis (normal pregnancy) as well as the uterine NK cell response to pathogens.

Natalie Lédéé (Paris, France)
Nathalie Lédée is Gynaecologist specialised in reproductive medicine and senior researcher of a unit focusing on implantation and cytokinic dialogue between mother and conceptus in the University of Paris XI/ INSERM U-782. Main field of interest of her group is the development of translational researches between immunologists and physicians aiming to understand and improve uterine receptivity, defining oocyte competence through large scale analysis of follicular fluids and decipher the cytokinic maternal dialogue occurring before implantation occurs. The final objective of her group is to bring innovation to current practice allowing personalised support to infertile couple in failure.

Udo Markert (Jena, Germany)
Udo R. Markert is Head of the Placenta Laboratories at the Department of Obstetrics of the University Hospital Jena, Germany. For more than 15 years, he is working in the field of reproductive immunology. During the last years, the regulation of trophoblast functions, such as especially invasiveness, became a major focus of his work. In this context, the role of several intracellular signalling pathways and their extracellular stimuli have been described. His group combines biochemical and proteomic approaches which led to patents in the fields of preeclampsia and assisted reproduction. The Placenta Laboratories are involved in numerous european and international networks and cooperations. Thereby, a special aim is the introduction, training and internationalization of young researchers in the field of reproductive immunology.

Andreas Meinhardt (Giessen, Germany)
Andreas Meinhardt is a Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Justus-Liebig University in Giessen, Germany. Originally interested in male germ cell development, infection and inflammation of the testis has now been his research focus for more than 15 years. Translating results from rodent models of autoimmune orchitis his team has identified autoantigens that prove useful in the diagnosis of acute and silent inflammatory infertility. A major research focus has also been the role of dendritic cells and testosterone in the regulation of testicular immune balance. Using bacterial mutants his group has identified a mechanism by which strains of E. coli can actively suppress NF-B proinflammatory cytokine secretion by testicular cells by shifting to an antiviral-like response thus enabling bacteria to persist and impair sprmatogenesis.

Jeffrey Mold (San Francisco, USA)
Dr. Mold completed his Ph.D. Dissertation at the University of California, San Francisco under the mentorship of Dr. Joseph M. McCune.  In this time he demonstrated that the fetal T cell pool contains a large population of regulatory T cells (TReg), which suppress fetal immune responses to maternal alloantigens.  This finding has prompted further investigation into the tolerogenic potential of fetal T cells in human beings in relation to infectious diseases. 

Dr. Mold's ongoing research has been focused on defining the factors that contribute to the differences observed between the functional properties of fetal and adult T cell populations, particularly the apparent predisposition that fetal T cells have towards becoming tolerogenic TReg cells after stimulation. To this end, recent studies have been aimed at understanding differences between fetal and adult lymphocytes at the level of the hematopoietic stem cell compartment across different stages of human development.

Gil Mor (New Haven, USA)
Gil Mor, M.D., Ph.D. is an Associate Professor-Tenure of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Science at Yale University School of Medicine. In his research he examines topics related to the immunology of implantation, the role of apoptosis in tissue remodeling and cancer, as well as the role of inflammation in cancer formation and progression. At the present time he is the Director of the Reproductive Immunology Unit and the Translational Research Program “Discovery To Cure” at Yale University.  Dr. Mor is the Editor in Chief of the American Journal of Reproductive Immunology.
Dr. Mor is funded by grants from National Institute on Child Health and Human Development and National Cancer Institute as well as several pharmaceutical companies and is widely published in the area of immunology and reproduction with more than 170 publications and is the editor of a two books on “Immunology of pregnancy” and “Apoptosis and Cancer”.
Dr. Mor is recipient of several national and international prizes, including the J. Christian Herr Award-from the Society for Reproductive Immunology
Dr. Mor is member of the American Association for Cancer Research, the Society for Gynecologic Investigation and the American Society of Reproductive Immunology. He is also Honorary member of several scientific societies in South America and Europe.

Rebecca Robker (Adelaide, Australia)
Dr Rebecca Robker is a Research Fellow at the University of Adelaide in the School of Paediatrics and Reproductive Health. Her laboratory focuses on identifying cellular pathways in the ovary that regulate oocyte quality and ovulation, principally those incorporating maternal hormone, immunological and metabolic inputs. Research projects include investigating the cellular mechanisms by which immune cells, particularly macrophages and T cells, regulate ovarian tissue remodeling; and elucidating the cellular pathways by which obesity/ insulin resistance disrupt oocyte developmental competence. Her studies using genetically modified mouse models including MacGreen, ICAM-1 null and progesterone receptor null mice have shown that disruptions to leukocyte function significantly impact ovarian function. In addition, critical immune cell regulatory pathways are investigated in ovarian cells of women with obesity and PCOS to determine how the altered follicular environment in these women contributes to their infertility.  

Shigeru Saito (Toyama, Japan)
Professor S. Saito has received Bachelor of Medicine in 1980 from Nara Medical University, Japan, and Ph. D. from Nara Medical University in 1985. During a postdoctoral period at Kyoto University Virus Center, he studied molecular biology and immunology, especially cytokines. Since 1990 he has served as associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Nara Medical University. Since April 1998, he has been Professor and Chairman in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University. He is one of the Editor-in-Chief of J. Reprod. Immunol. 
His research interests have centered primarily at understanding the immunology at the maternal and fetal interface with particular emphasis on the roles of cytokines and chemokines and the immune cells that produce them in reproduction and perinatal medicine.

Lois Salamonsen (Melbourne, Australia)
Professor Lois Salamonsen, PhD, is Senior Principal Research Fellow of the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC), Head of the Uterine Biology Division and Endometrial Remodelling laboratory at Prince Henry's Institute of Medical Research and Hon. Professor in the Dept of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Monash University. Her laboratory is internationally recognized for its contributions to our understanding of endometrial remodeling, the mechanisms underlying menstruation and abnormal uterine bleeding, uterine receptivity and embryo implantation. Her team has identified new potential targets for contraception for women and is developing appropriate inhibitors for such use. She also heads projects aimed at developing diagnostics for infertility and for identifying receptive endometrium. Professor Salamonsen has over 200 peer–reviewed publications. She has worked as consultant for the World Health Organisation and for Schering AG and has held major grants from the NIH, Rockefeller Foundation, Wellcome Trust, and WHO. She is currently CIA on an NHMRC Program grant.  Prof Salamonsen was President of the Society for Reproductive Biology (SRB) in 2004-6. She currently serves as Associate Editor for Biology of Reproduction and Reproductive Sciences. In 2009 she was awarded the prestigious “Founders’ lecture” by SRB for her work on endometrial function.  

Ian Sargent (Oxford, UK)
Ian Sargent is Professor of Reproductive Science in the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Oxford. His research focus for the last 30 years has been the immunology of human pregnancy. In a long standing collaboration with Professor Chris Redman their studies on the etiology of pre-eclampsia have led them to discover that the maternal endothelial dysfunction which characterises the disease is part of a more generalised maternal systemic inflammatory response. Their hypothesis is that trophoblast debris, shed into the maternal circulation in increased amounts in pre-eclampsia, is the stimulus for the inflammatory response and the cause of endothelial damage. Evidence suggests that the pivotal cells in this process may be NK cells rather than T cells as previously thought. This finding may provide the link between activation of the innate immune response and changes in type/type 2 immunity in normal pregnancy and pre-eclampsia.

Surendra Sharma (Providence, USA)
Identification of a functional biomarker, early pregnancy diagnosis, and treatment of preeclampsia would significantly reduce maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality from this relatively common pregnancy disorder. However, its etiology and early pregnancy prediction have remained enigmatic. Based on the hypothesis that serum from preeclampsia patients could function as a “blueprint” of causative factors, we describe a mouse model completely mirroring the human condition as well as an in vitro predictive assay. We show that unlike normal pregnancy serum, a single administration of human preeclampsia serum in pregnant IL-10-/- mice on gestational day (gd) 10 induced the full spectrum of preeclampsia-like symptoms.  Preeclampsia sera were found to induce hypoxic injury in uteroplacental units. Importantly, preeclampsia serum disrupted cross-talk between trophoblasts and endothelial cells in a capillary tube assay involving a three-dimensional culture system on matrigel, a mimic of endovascular activity during spiral artery remodeling. Capillary tube disruption activity could be traced back to 12-14 weeks pregnancy serum samples in a longitudinal study. We have also identified a functional biomarker. These results provide the first evidence for well defined in vivo and in vitro models that offer avenues for understanding the pathogenetic pathways for preeclampsia and have potential for predicting the disorder.
 

Julia Szekers-Bartho (Pecs, Hungary)
Julia Szekeres-Bartho is a Full Professor ant Chair of the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Medical School of Pécs University, Hungary. Her research has focused on, the interaction of reproductive hormones and the immune system. Her group have discovered and characterized a progesterone induced protein called PIBF. By signaling via a novel form of the IL-4 receptor this molecule induces a TH2 dominant cytokine production, and exerts an anti-abortive effect in mice. PIBF production is also a characteristic feature of normal human pregnancy, and determination of PIBF concentration in urine might be of use for the diagnosis of threatened premature pregnancy termination. They have identified a number of PIBF-regulated genes that play a role during the establishment and maintenance of pregnancy.

Christine Watson (Cambridge, UK)
Christine Watson is a Reader (Associate Professor) at the University of Cambridge, UK. Her research has been focussed on the biology of normal mammary gland development for the past 20 years. Her particular interest is defining the mechanisms of cell death during post-lactational regression in the mouse using genetic models, and her lab showed that the transcription factor Stat3 is an essential mediator of involution and cell death. Using global transcription profiling, Stat3 was shown to regulate also inflammatory, anti-inflammatory and acute phase signalling during involution. More recently, her lab has become interested in the role of type-2 cytokines in lineage determination of mammary stem cells and this work has revealed an unexpected role for Stat6 and IL-4/Il-13 in commitment of progenitor cells to the alveolar lineage that gives rise to the milk-producing cells during lactation. 

Chuck Wira (Lebanon, USA)
Prof. Chuck Wira is an internationally recognized scientist with specific expertise in endocrinology and mucosal immunology as it relates to the immune system at mucosal surfaces of the female reproductive tract. Dr. Wira’s research focuses on how female sex hormones influence innate and adaptive immunity in the female reproductive tract of animal models and humans. As Principal Investigator of an NIH funded Program Project grants for the past 14 years, he has led a major collaborative effort at Dartmouth Medical School to characterize immune functions in the Fallopian tube, uterus, cervix and vagina to define the roles of estradiol and progesterone in mucosal immune regulation. His research focuses on the phenotypic and functional characterization of the mucosal immune system and in understanding at the cellular and molecular level the ways in which this system is regulated to protect against potential pathogens including HIV. Recent studies focus on the role of mucosal immunity in natural and vaccine induced protection against HIV. Wira has published approximately 160 research papers in this area.