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The twentieth century will close with 5 billion people added to the current global population. Between 1980 and the year 2000, the total world population will increase from 4 billion 10 a liUle over 6 billion. There will be half as many morc people on earth during these 20 years than the number accumulated since the origin of man to 1980. Overpopulation is particularly acute in economically developing countries, where contraception has become a social necessity. Comraceplion Researcll for Today and Ihe Nineties carries the proceedings of an international symposium convened in New Delhi in October, 1986, to review the status of current research in contraception. Major organizations supporting basic and applied research in contraception-The Population Council, World Health Organization (WHO), The Rockefeller Foundation, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), International Development Research Center of Canada (IDRC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)- were represented by the heads of divi­ sions who projected respective programs and strategies. Principal scientists responsible for many of the new leads participated.

Over the last several decades, many biologists have been intrigued with the'immunological paradox'of pregnancy, where maternal and fetal tissues peaceably coexist despite their genetic differences. With the development of new insights on the interactive components of the immune system as well as the generation of powerful new molecular and cellular tools, singular progress has been made in understanding immunological events that culminate in successful pregnancy. This volume contains the proceedings for the first US symposium on the'Immunobiology of Reproduction'held August 26 - 29, 1993 in Boston, Massachusetts. Papers address hemotopoietic cells in reproductive tissues; growth factors/cytokines in the female reproductive tract and placenta; growth factor networks in pregnancy loss and cancer; placental expression of major histocompatibility complex and associated genes; experimental models of MHC gene expression; and immunological aspects of human infertility.

This book contains the proceedings of the Serono Symposia USA interna­ tional symposium on Genetic Models of Immune and Inflammatory Dis­ eases held on October 20 to 23, 1994, in Savannah, Georgia. The advent of methods for introducing genes into the germlines of mice, and for targeted disruption of particular genes by homologous recombination, has provided scientists in many disciplines with an extraordinarily powerful set of analyti­ cal tools. Some of the most informative applications of transgenic and gene knockout technology have been in studies of lymphocyte development and activation. The goal of this symposium was to bring together investigators using these genetic approaches for analyzing the immune system, with a view to defining common themes and novel directions. Transgenic mice have a wide variety of important applications in immu­ nology. Defined proteins can be expressed in selected tissues throughout development, thus acquiring the essential characteristic of'self'antigens. Such models have been used to study how immune responses to these artificially created'self'antigens are controlled. Antigen receptors of lym­ phocytes have been expressed as transgenes, and because lymphocytes are endowed with the unique property of allelic exclusion, such transgenic mice become essentially monospecific. Immunomodulatory agents have been expressed in defined tissues or throughout the body, providing tools for studying the functional consequences of dysregulated expression of biologi­ cal response modifiers.