Meeting Review: Joint Prince Henry's Institute of Medical Research and Monash Institute of Reproduction and Development Symposium – Reproductive Genomics

Monash Institute of Reproduction and Development (MIRD) and Prince Henry’s Institute of Medical Research (PHIMR) are institutes with a traditional focus on reproductive biology. Located in Melbourne, they have expertise ranging from male and female fertility/infertility, hormonal regulation, pre-implantation biology and screening, sudden infant death syndrome, cancers of the reproductive tract, early human development, assisted reproductive technologies, endangered species conservation, and more recently, the development and use of embryonic stem cells for strictly nonreproductive purposes. This environment formed the perfect setting for an international symposium on reproductive genomics – a relatively new discipline, which, judging from the high caliber of data presented and the number of attendees, is being embraced emphatically. The meeting was opened by the Honourable John Brumby (The Victorian State Government Treasurer and Minister for State and Regional Development) who signaled a bright future for Australian (and Victorian in particular) biotechnology and its underpinning basic research, through a strong Government financial and legislative commitment to place Victoria within the top five biotechnologies regions world wide by 2010. The success of such a venture however, is solely dependent on attracting and retaining the ‘best and brightest’ Australian researchers through improved salary conditions and support a point that has long been heralded by organizations such as The Australian Society for Medical Research, but difficult to meaningfully implement in the face of biotechnology giants based in the regions such as those around San Diego, San Francisco Bay and Boston. This commitment and the possibility of combining the very attractive Australian lifestyle with improved work conditions was, however, enthusiastically received. The scientific sessions were started by Austin Cooney (Baylor College of Medicine, TX) who vividly highlighted the value of the mouse as a model organism and the necessity for meticulous phenotypic analyses in order to grasp the underlying biology. This theme was echoed by Margaret Jones (PHIMR, Australia) and David Bowtell (Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute, Australia) later in the day. Austin presented his lab’s work on germ cell nuclear factor (GCNF) and the various cre-lox mouse models they have constructed to unravel its importance in male and female reproductive biology. Male and female germ line specific gcnf deletions were produced driven by sycp1 and zp3 promoter linked cre respectively. He showed that despite the implementation of impressive molecular biology and the success of ROSA assays, inactivation of the gcnf locus driven by sycp1 promoter linked cre occurred in only 10% of male germ cells. The zp3 driven excision was, however, very successful, yet ovarian histology appeared normal and females were fertile. Fortunately, through the thorough (and at times no doubt heart breaking) efforts of Austin’s post-docs, it was noticed that the estrous cycle (and specifically diestrous) of Comparative and Functional Genomics Comp Funct Genom 2002; 3: 205–208. Published online 12 March 2002 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002 /cfg.151