Minutes of the 14th European Workshop on Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology of the Testis

Abstract

The concept of the European Testis Workshops evolved from maller national and bilateral workshops within Europe and he 1st European Testis Workshop took place in Geilo, Noray in 1980. There are no statutes, no written rules, no society, o president and no elections behind the ETWs. There is just self-appointed “Permanent Committee” of eight European esearchers dedicated to the testis as their research focus. Each f them organizes an ETW at the beginning and again at the nd of his/her term in the committee and hands the torch over o a successor from the same country or region. In recent years, he old and the new members have organized their last and first TW together. This guarantees a smooth transition and a contant rejuvenation of the Permanent Committee. The 7th ETW was the first to be held in Germany and took lace in 1992 at the legendary Castle Elmau. The 14th ETW was lso supposed to be held there. Everything was prepared for that vent, when Castle Elmau burned down in August 2005—not nly a disaster for the owners and the guests, but especially for he ETW. In a frantic search for alternatives Hotel Sankt Georg n Bad Aibling was identified as a possible substitute venue. The 14th ETW convened in Bad Aibling, in southern Bavaria, ermany from 22 to 26 April 2006 and was organized by Eberard Nieschlag and Jorg Gromoll, both from the Institute of eproductive Medicine of the University of Munster, Germany. ver 220 participants from 14 different European countries, as ell as participants from North and South America, Australia, ran, Qatar, Israel, India and Japan attended the workshop, which asted 4 days. The 2006 workshop was divided into seven symposia, four orkshops and seven miniposter sessions. The symposia were rouped according to the topics Mammalian Testis Biology, ndocrine Regulation of Spermatogenesis, Sperm Function,