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AIAS Symposium

1st Symposium Meeting on Genes, Reproduction and Development


Symposium description

The 1st Symposium Meeting on 'Genes, Reproduction and Development' will be held at the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS), creating perfect frames for research discussion that has multifaceted relations. The symposium will discuss recent advances in our understanding of human ovarian follicle activation, in particular in regard to current treatments, and how to overcome infertility, a disease in the reproductive organs affecting more than 10% of couples trying to conceive. In continues efforts to unravel the molecular pathways driving these early developmental stages, several global gene analyses have been performed and moreover, the regulatory pathways that control gene expression, such as DNA methylation will be covered at this symposium. The consequences of not establishing correct cell commitments during the preimplantation stages can lead to aberrant pregnancies, such as trophoblast outgrowth observed in mola hydatidosa.

Topics for the symposium thus take a starting point in the activation of the dormant primordial follicle, through folliculogenesis, address the molecular pathways contributing to these events and transitions, discuss fertilization and embryo viability, and move into the world of DNA methylation in the hunt for modifiers for cell fate and lineage decisions and the establishment of the inner cells mass and trophoblast cells of the blastocyst, and how failure or inefficiency can lead to mola pregnancies.


Keynote speakers

Three distinguished keynote speakers will attend this meeting:

  • Kate Hardy, Professor of Reproductive Biology, Imperial College London, United Kingdom
  • Gavin Kelsey, Professor at the Babraham Institute, University of Cambridge Centre for Trophoblast Research, United Kingdom
  • Rima Slim, Professor at the Department of Human Genetics and Obstetrics-Gynecology, McGill University, Canada

Venue

Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS), Aarhus University, Buildings 1630-1632, Høegh-Guldbergs Gade 6B, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark. See location on a map.


Programme

See the programme here.


Time schedule

Tuesday 1 December 2015

  • 09.00 - 18.00