News

Image showing the signalling cells (in green) of the mouse placenta that are key for remote controlling the metabolism of the mother to support nutrient supply and growth of the fetus. Credit_ Sferruzzi

Unborn babies use ‘greedy’ gene from dads to ‘remote-control’ mums into feeding them extra food

10 July 2023

Unborn babies use ‘greedy’ gene from dads to ‘remote-control’ mums into feeding them extra food Fetuses use a copy of a gene inherited from their dad to force their mum to release as much nutrients as possible during pregnancy, Cambridge scientists have discovered. The unborn baby ‘remote controls’ its mother’s metabolism...

Cell mapping and ‘mini placentas’ give new insights into human pregnancy

29 March 2023

Loke CTR researchers have mapped the complete trajectory of placental development, helping shed new light on why pregnancy disorders happen. Researchers from the Loke Centre for Trophoblast Research, the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI), Switzerland, EMBL’s European...

Molecular 3D-maps unlock new ways of studying human reproduction

16 June 2022

Molecular 3D-maps unlock new ways of studying human reproduction Loke Centre for Trophoblast Researchers have identified the biochemical signals that control the emergence of the body pattern in the primate embryo. This will guide work to understand birth defects and pregnancy loss in humans. The study also provides a...

CTR PhD Student collaborative paper published in Hypertension, June 2022

7 June 2022

A new collaborative paper by the University of Cambridge, Loke CTR's PhD student Dr Wen Tong , and the Fourth Military Medical University in Xi’An China, has been published in the Hypertension journal. The paper describes the role of pregnancy complicated by chronic hypoxia in preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction...

Staff achievements and awards

1 June 2022

Staff news: The Loke CTR community are delighted to announce these staff achievements: Prof. Graham Burton , FMedSci FRS, former Director of Loke CTR, and former Chair of Cambridge Reproduction, has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society. We congratulate Graham on this well-deserved achievement! The Royal Society is...

How baby demands food from Mum before birth: a tale of two imprinted genes

5 January 2022

Research led by scientists from the Constância Group has identified a key signal that a fetus uses to control its supply of nutrients from the placenta. The way that a fetus grows ‘in sync’ with the placenta was not known until now. The study, carried out in mice as a 'model' (proxy) for human pregnancy, could help explain...

Disruption of Folate Metabolism Causes Poor Alignment and Spacing of Mouse Conceptuses for Multiple Generations

13 December 2021

Amy L. Wilkinson, Katerina Menelaou, Joanna Rakoczy, Xiu S. Tan and Erica D. Watson Abstract Abnormal uptake or metabolism of folate increases risk of human pregnancy complications, though the mechanism is unclear. Here, we explore how defective folate metabolism influences early development by analysing mice with the...

Uterine atlas can lead to better models of the womb, provide insights into diseases

9 December 2021

In the quest to study the womb and its role in reproductive health, researchers in the Turco lab and their collaborators have generated a cellular map of the human uterus and of endometrial organoids — lab-grown models of the womb’s lining. The atlas, which is the most detailed of its kind, will help scientists to develop...

Mapping the temporal and spatial dynamics of the human endometrium in vivo and in vitro

9 December 2021

Luz Garcia-Alonso, Louis-François Handfield, Kenny Roberts, Konstantina Nikolakopoulou, Ridma C. Fernando, Lucy Gardner, Benjamin Woodhams, Anna Arutyunyan, Krzysztof Polanski, Regina Hoo, Carmen Sancho-Serra, Tong Li, Kwasi Kwakwa, Elizabeth Tuck, Valentina Lorenzi, Hassan Massalha, Martin Prete, Vitalii Kleshchevnikov...

Characterization of primary models of human trophoblast

3 November 2021

Megan A. Sheridan, Xiaohui Zhao, Ridma C. Fernando, Lucy Gardner, Vicente Perez-Garcia, Qian Li, Steven G.E. Marsh, Russell Hamilton, Ashley Moffett, Margherita Y. Turco Although understanding of human placental development is still limited, two models, trophoblast organoids and trophoblast stem cells (TSC) provide new...