News

 Picture from the Boyd Collection held at the Centre for Trophoblast Research.HEART DISEASE STARTS IN THE WOMB: NEW ARTICLE BY PROFESSOR DINO GIUSSANI, CTR MEMBER.OUR CARDS MAY BE MARKED EVEN BEFORE WE ARE BORN...A study led by Caius Professor Dino Giussani has discovered that babies born to pregnancies complicated with chronic hypoxia – lower-than…

219 34e7af4b-b223-4c02-bfc8-955f8be60ef9 15145 und 1549625433 Imported from Falcon: 9531a3d1a9b04644a1079acf68c7b7f8 1 1549625433 1788378172 0 0 1 1 1 published 8 Feb 2019 news_article

Placentas adapt to help keep babies healthy when mothers have poor diets or low oxygen during pregnancy Cambridge researchers have discovered the placenta regulates how much oxygen and nutrients it transports to babies during challenging pregnancies in a study using mice to model conditions in the womb.The placenta is the least understood organ in …

Mini placenta grown in the lab by CTR team listed by the Guardian in "The Science Stories that shook 2018". See the full article in the Guardian here:https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/dec/23/the-science-stories-that-shook-2018-genetics-evolution-climate-change-artificial-intelligence?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Trophoblast organoids as a model for maternal–fetal interactions during human placentation- article by Margherita Turco and CTR team published in Nature on 28 November.The article can be found here:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0753-3The press release by the University of Cambridge can be found here:https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/…

Roser Vento-Tormo's paper showing reconstruction of the placental bed in early pregnancy from single-cell sequencing has been published in Nature this week.https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0698-6

Shedding light on uterine lymphocytes: the power of mouse modelsThe uterus of humans and mice is home to many immune cells, including natural killer (NK) and other innate lymphoid cells (ILCs), which may play important roles in pregnancy. The uterine mucosa dynamically adapts to both the menstrual cycle and pregnancy and therefore it is particularl…

CTR manager Professor Gordon Smith took part in a Channel 4 documentary on stillbirth screened on 18 October. The aim of the documentary was to raise awareness and to underline the importance of monitoring placental functions during pregnancy as stillbirths are often linked to  placental malfunctions.

The University has funded an SRI in Reproduction that aims to bring together the biological, social and clinical sciences with the arts and humanities to provide a multidisicplinary approach to current challenging topics in reproduction, such as inheritance, artificial gametes and embryos, and parenting. The Centre for Trophoblast is part of this n…

CTR Associate Romina Plitman publishes article on "Advances in Human Placental Biomechanics" in the " Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal".  Romina, now a Cambridge college lecturer, was previously one of our CTR funded PhD students. The article can be found here:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2001037018300667

The 2018 CTR Annual conference gathered together more than 130 world experts on placental biology. Highlights included discussions on the link between caesarean sections and placenta accreta, a dangerous condition that can be life threatening for new mothers and might lead to emergency hysterectomies.

The CTR contributed to hosting the 2018 Global Women’s Health (GLOW) meeting in Cambridge in June. Ashley Moffett introduced the meeting and Graham Burton, Gordon Smith, Charlotte Patient and Annettee Nakimuli all gave presentations. 

Romina Plitman received the prestigious award for her PhD work funded by the CTR. Romina was a CTR funded PhD student until March 2018 when she was awarded her PhD. The award (DEPUY BEST POSTGRADUATE MEDICAL ENGINEERING PROJECT) was given by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and more details can be found on their webpage here: https://events…