The 9th Congress of the European Association of Reproductive Immunology (ESRADI) and the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) was held in Copenhagen on August 23-26, 2011. One hundred forty eight scientists and specialists from all European countries participated in the Congress. Fifty nine reports on specific problems from reproductive physiology, immunology and pathology were presented in 19 plenary sessions and one poster session. Young scientists presented 14 reports in 2 sessions. The presentations were accompanied by elevated scientific interest and discussions.

Four scientists from IBIR participating in the ReProForce project presented the following posters:

1. Effect of hyperthermia on mouse spermatogenesis and apoptosis.
M.Mollova, S. Zaprjanova, P. Rashev, Y. Martinova

2. Gene panel in human cumulus cells as biomarker for successful in vitro procedures.   
Todorova K., Hayrabedyan S., Dineva J., Vangelov I., Ivanova M., Mollova M.

3. Innate immune system cells distribution in endometrium during implantation and early pregnancy.  R. Georgieva, T. Dimova

Presented data from IBIR scientists provoked interest from: Prof. Udo Markert – Placenta lab, Department of Obstetrics, Friedrich-Schiller-University,Jena, Germany; Prof. Eytam R. Barnea - SIEP; Biolncept, Cherry Hill and UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical  School, Camden, USA;  Prof. Nelson Fernandes – Department of Biological Sciences, University of Essex, UК;       Dr. Isabel Santillan – Center for Assisted Reproduction, GINEFIV, Madrid, Spain;  Dr. F. Monica – Institute of Human Genetics – Poznan and Dr. P. Malgorzata – Pomeranian Medical University, Szczecin, Poland.

The provoked interest towards the presented data was followed by suggestions for future collaboration in the field of technologies for microarray analysis of single cells (Prof. Udo Markert); Soren Hayrabedyan, PhD performed discussions with Prof. Nelson Fernandes concerning future mutual work on visualization of receptors participating in the innate immune response; Prof. Eytam R. Barnea suggested mutual scientific work on the preimplantation factor PIF in embryonic and fetal tissues from pigs with the purpose of establishing PIF as commercial product for early diagnostics of pregnancy in human and animals.

During the congress the participants were provided with the first announcement for the 13th International Symposium of Immunology of Reproduction, which will be held on 22-24 June 2012, Varna, Bulgaria, organized as a part of the ReProForce FP7 project program as well as with specially prepared information on the mission and purposes of ReProForce FP7 project.  World-renowned scientists working on issues of reproductive biology, immunology and pathology were invited for participation with the plenary papers in the 13th International Symposium of Immunology of Reproduction during these meeting. More than 15 of them have given prior consent. The idea that abstracts of the 13th Symposium to be published in the peer review journal was discussed with the editors of a ESRADI Journal of Reproductive Immunology Sarah Robertson and Satish Gupta. This can promote the dissemination of the studies on the problems of reproductive biology, immunology and biotechnology, including the achievements of IBIR.

Intensive talks were held between the ReProForce project partners on possible collaboration in new FP7 Health research project. On behalf of the Bulgarian team discussions were attended - Prof. M. Mollova, ReProForce Project Coordinator, Prof. R. Georgieva (Chairman of the International Coordination Committee for Immunology of Reproduction (ICCIR) and member of the International Association for Immunology of Reproduction, S. Hayrabedyan, PhD and K. Todorova, PhD as well as ReProForce partners Prof. Udo Markert and Prof. Nelson Fernandes. The possibilities for creation of an international team formed by current project members and new EU partners working in close relationship could be beneficial for proposing a new research project.

In conclusion it may be noted that the participation of Margarita Mollova, Rayna Georgieva, Soren Hayrabedyan and Krassimira Todorova in the 9th Congress of the European Association of Reproductive Immunology (ESRADI) in Copenhagen, Denmark, August 23-27, 2011 was very useful and successful.