The request is for support for a total of 20 trainees (graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty members) to attend the 18th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Immunology (ASRI). The Meeting will be held May 9 -12, 1998 at the Sheraton- Chicago Hotel and Towers in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The meeting is under joint sponsorship of the ASRI and the Finch University of Health Sciences/The Chicago Medical School. The objective of this international meeting is to bring together clinicians and basic scientists to discuss contemporary topics in reproductive immunology, to share their research results and to exchange ideas. By financially supporting these trainees and junior faculty members, they will have the opportunity to attend state-of-the-art lectures and discuss ideas with international experts in reproductive immunology and related fields. Advances in reproductive immunology research have major practical applications to prevalent health problems such as infertility and recurrent pregnancy loss, as well as the development of immunocontraceptives, and vaccines to prevent transmission of sexually transmitted diseases. The 1998 meeting consists of six plenary sessions and poster session. The plenary sessions address the topics of 1) Relationships between HLA and pregnancy, 2) Update on cytokines and other regulator molecules of pregnancy, 3) Novel pathways involved in pregnancy in animal models and relationship to human pregnancy, 4) State of the art symposium on HIV and the maternal-fetal interface, 5) Contributions of the mucosal immune system to successful pregnancy, 6) Treatment of recurrent spontaneous abortions. In each plenary session there are lectures by both established and promising new investigators that address both the basic science and clinical aspects of the topic. Complimenting the lectures are oral presentations chosen from the submitted abstracts, which will be graded on their scientific content. The program and abstracts will be published immediately prior to the meeting, and, accepted manuscripts subsequently, in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Reproductive Immunology.
