News

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

Molecular 3D-maps unlock new ways of studying human reproductionCentre 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 crucial reference for foetal tissue g…

A new collaborative paper by the University of Cambridge, 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, opening avenues for novel predictiv…

Staff news:The CTR community are delighted to announce these staff achievements:Prof. Graham Burton, FMedSci FRS, former Director of 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 a self-governing Fellowship made up of …

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 why some babies grow poorl…

Amy L. Wilkinson, Katerina Menelaou, Joanna Rakoczy, Xiu S. Tan and Erica D. WatsonAbstractAbnormal 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 hypomorphic Mtrrgt mutation. MTR…

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 better models of the womb.…

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, Aleksandra Tarkowska, Tarry…

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. TurcoAlthough understanding of human placental development is still limited, two models, trophoblast organoids and trophoblast stem cells (TSC) provide new useful tools to study this. Bo…

Dino GuissaniAbstractHeart disease remains one of the greatest killers. In addition to genetics and traditional lifestyle risk factors, we now understand that adverse conditions during pregnancy can also increase susceptibility to cardiovascular disease in the offspring. Therefore, the mechanisms by which this occurs and possible preventative thera…

Meng Zhu, Marta Shahbazi, Angel Martin, Chuanxin Zhang, Berna Sozen, Mate Borsos, Rachel S Mandelbaum, Richard J Paulson, Matteo A Mole, Marga Esbert, Shiny Titus, Richard T Scott, Alison Campbell, Simon Fishel, Viviana Gradinaru, Han Zhao, Keliang Wu, Zijiang Chen, Emre Seli, Maria J. de los Santos, Magdalena Zernicka-GoetzApico-basal polarization…

Professor Abby Fowden is retiring after 45 years as a member of academic staff in Cambridge, including time spent as acting Head of Department for PDN and as Head of SBS. Her research has focused on the control of feto-placental growth, metabolism and development, and the long term consequences for adult health. To date, Abby has published over 300…

AbstractReproductive longevity is essential for fertility and influences healthy ageing in women1,2, but insights into its underlying biological mechanisms and treatments to preserve it are limited. Here we identify 290 genetic determinants of ovarian ageing, assessed using normal variation in age at natural menopause (ANM) in about 200,000 women o…

New research from the Autism Research Centre and the Rosie Hospital, both at the University of Cambridge, suggests that maternal steroid factors during pregnancy are associated with autistic traits in mothers and their infants.Previous studies have shown a relationship between prenatal sex steroid hormones and the likelihood of autism in the childr…

Berna Sozen,Victoria Jorgensen,Bailey A. T. Weatherbee,Sisi Chen,Meng Zhu & Magdalena Zernicka-GoetzAbstractUnderstanding human development is of fundamental biological and clinical importance. Despite its significance, mechanisms behind human embryogenesis remain largely unknown. Here, we attempt to model human early embryo development with expand…