Prof. Kiril Bratanov |
In September 1967, Prof. Kiril Bratanov and his collaborators, after intensive correspondence with other researchers in reproductive immunology convened the First Symposium on Immunology of Spermatozoa and Fertilization in Varna, Bulgaria. Participants from more than 20 countries all over the world as well as the representatives from World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) attended the Symposium.
During the Symposium, the International Coordination Committee for Immunology of Reproduction (ICCIR) was founded. The main aim of the ICCIR was to coordinate research work on reproductive immunology between different countries and every 3 years to organize symposia in Varna. |
In 1969 the ICCIR held a meeting on “Immunology and Reproduction” at WHO headquarters in Geneva and elected the ICCIR Steering Committee as follows: president – K.Bratanov, vice-president – S. Shulman, secretary general – R.Edwards, secretary - I. Sokolovskaya, treasurer – A. Eyquem. It was registered in Paris and in Sofia and its offices were in Sofia and Cambridge.
These two events gave impetus to serious and profound research work in the field of reproductive immunology in many countries. In 1997 at the 9th Symposium Rayna Georgieva, Institute of Biology and Immunology of Reproduction “Acad.K.Bratanov”, Bulgarian Academy of Scienses, was elected president of ICCIR.
In 1975 at the 3th Symposium in Varna the International Society of Immunology for Reproduction, at the proposal of K.Bratanov and other participants, was founded. K.Bratanov was its first president.
It is important to mention the contribution of the ICCIR as well as of the Varna Symposia to the creation of this new for the sixties interdisciplinary trend – reproductive immunology and for discussing and trying to delineate the trends for its future development. Research at that period was directed to the elucidation of regulatory factors and immune mechanisms in reproduction, some aspects of unexplained infertility, IVF and the possibility for assisted reproduction atc.
The period since the 1st Symposium was long enough to be marked by a number of significant events: fundamental and clinical achievements in reproductive immunology, foundation of the International Society for Immunology of Reproduction, the European Society for Reproductive Immunology and many national societies of reproductive immunology. Today, a huge army of young, intelligent and ambitious researchers all over the world investigate basic and clinical aspects of reproductive immunology. Moreover, as Prof. R. Billingham, at the 3rd Congress of International Society for Immunology of Reproduction, 1986 in Toronto said:
“...Let us never forget that, was it not for Bulgaria, was it not our dear friend Kiril, we would have never gathered here as a research community to deal with such an important problem for humanity, the immunology of reproduction…”
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