Three participants at XIII International Symposium on Spermatology explain to us their thoughts on the event:
Prof Gerhard van der Horst, Prof Stefan du Plessis and Dr Liana Maree.
Representing your country and institution at any international conference is always a great honour, but with that also comes a certain amount of responsibility in connecting with one’s peers. What makes the International Symposium of Spermatology so unique is that, in the words of the legendary David Mortimer, “anyone can talk to anyone”, since all there are no academic/political/age boundaries at this event.
Lars Björndahl and his LOC in Stockholm should be lauded for putting together a diverge scientific programme covering an interesting spread of spermatology topics in various themed sessions, including “Are sperm at the verge of extinction” and “CASA – Advances and challenges: The S is for…”. Not only were we treated with invited speakers form all around the world, but even the youngsters got a chance to present their latest project results to the 120 delegates. Each session was ended with a panel discussion where topics were further debated and if this was not enough to voice your opinion we had chance to deliberate issues 24/7 while staying at the picturesque Skogshem & Wijk conference centre in Lidingö.
Two presentations that had the whole audience in awe due to the cutting-edge imaging technologies applied, were Sabine Kölle’s video clips of mammalian sperm behaviour in the female genital tract in normal and diseased states, as well as Luca Jovine’s three dimensional structure of an egg coat-sperm protein complex which is shared between species as distantly related as molluscs and humans. And just when you thought all sperm structures have been discovered and described, a talk by Tomer Avidor-Reiss surprises you when he describes the atypical nature of the distal sperm centriole and its importance during the first mitotic events of the zygote.
Applications of fertility screening and infertility treatment that gave us food for thought was Liliana Ramos’ presentation on the use of ART and how it possibly could result in epigenetic abnormalities in the offspring if DNA damaged sperm are selected for ICSI. On a more practical note, Susan Rothman’s dichotomy key algorithm for human sperm morphology assessment seems to be a great improvement on the Strict classification scheme used in the past.
It was also interesting to listen to stalwarts such as Sharon and David Mortimer and Gerhard van der Horst and their advice on the do’s and don’ts for sample preparation, analysis and data interpretation of CASA. Since more and more spermatologists are starting to make use of CASA, it is important to realize that CASA is not just a plug-and-play system, but requires proper training and standardization before accurate and meaningful results can be generated. Various applications of CASA were showcased in numerous poster presentations as well as Microptic’s lunchtime workshop.
I had the privilege to also attend the previous ISSs in Japan and Newcastle and each time I go home being inspired and amazed by what I have learned in such a short time. With the next ISS in Vancouver, Canada, in 2022 already diarized on my calendar, I hope to establish some collaboration with the wonderful people I met and shared ideas with in Stockholm. Maybe one day one of my fellow-attendees will return to Stockholm as a Nobel Prize nominee or even winner!
“Birds do it, bees do it
Even educated fleas do it
Let’s do it, let’s…….study sperm”These adapted lyrics from the popular 1928 song, written by Cole Porter, might as well have been the anthem of the XIIIth International Symposium on Spermatology. As more than 130 delegates from 32 countries gathered in Stockholm, yet again the main and only focus was the Study of Sperm, no matter what the species.
This meeting has a rich history for bringing together andrologists, embryologists, clinicians, zoologists and comparative biologists and providing them with the opportunity to develop a better understanding of the male gamete through exploring variability between species.
Three of the most interesting and thought provoking themes/sessions for me included the following:
- Temporal trends in human sperm count and the controversy surrounding the decline;
- Common challenges faced by sperm in vitro due to the fact that the human ejaculate is not a homgenously produced fluid;
- CASA: Advances and challenges. Especially with the rapid development in software it was vital to revisit the current situation and where we would like this technology to move towards in the future. The Microptic symposium on SCA and CASA complemented this session perfectly by highlighting the latest state of the art CASA technology and its application in the research and clinical environment.
Throughout the conference I made great friends and left with many answers and ideas to do it….study sperm. This is definitely a conference not to miss.
I was fortunate to attend the recent XIII th ISS conference in Stockholm but also all the ISS series since 1994 and was also the convenor for the 9th ISS in 2002 in Cape Town. The Stockholm conference was a strong reminder that the ISS series, entirely devoted to sperm, and offered every four years is the most diverse and relevant conference for spermatologists. The conference usually takes place over five days and is entirely devoted to sperm biology. Any young investigator in the field of spermatology can simply not afford to miss the next meeting in Vancouver, Canada in 2022. What makes this conference unique as experienced in Stockholm? All the top researchers in the field attend and most of them are presenting invited papers. Moreover, the structure of the conference involves that bright young sperm biologists can be selected for oral presentations a feature I introduced in 2002.
So what makes this the nr one choice for sperm biologists? The conference in Stockholm set the example to cover all aspects in the field. All animal groups from Insects to humans are represented. All fields from sperm structure to molecular biology to sperm competition are included. In the more recent conferences, the focus in terms of basic sperm biology tends to be more and more quantitative and Computer Aided Sperm Analysis has now become extremely well established and is used for a very wide range of applications. Its importance and popularity relates to the fact that for almost all animal species we can study aspects such sperm motility and morphology , vitality and sperm fragmentation, acrosome reaction without the subjective bias of manual analysis and include aspects that could not be done manually. The Microptic SL satellite workshop enhanced this considerably.
The conference attendees vary from about 130 to 400 and allows lots of opportunities for informal discussions of young investigators with the experts.
Finally, the historical context of spermatology is really important and one of the landmarks the past 50 years of ISS is that particularly young investigators can understand spermatology better in this historical context and develop a feeling and appreciation where we come from and where we need to go. VIVA ISS now and for the future.
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