News

Igf2 deletion alters mouse placenta endocrine capacity in a sexually-dimorphic manner, just published in Journal of EndocrinologyPaper by Bethany R L Aykroyd 1 , Simon J Tunster 2 and Amanda N Sferruzzi-Perri 3 .You can read it in full here

New study by Zernicka-Goetz lab published on Nature on the mechanism of membrane perforation during the development of the mouse embryoDuring development the mouse embryo implants in the mother’s uterus and undergoes a dramatic transformation. The resulting post-implantation embryo has an elongated morphology and is thus called an ‘egg cylinder’, s…

Fetal inheritance of chromosomally integrated human herpesvirus 6 predisposes the mother to pre-eclampsia. Gaccioli F, Lager S, de Goffau MC, Sovio U, Dopierala J, Gong S, Cook E, Sharkey A, Moffett A, Lee WK, Delles C, Venturini C, Breuer J, Parkhill J, Peacock SJ, Charnock-Jones DS, Smith GCS. Nat Microbiol. 2020 May 4. doi: 10.1038/s41564-020-07…

As the maternal–foetal interface, the placenta is essential for the establishment and progression of healthy pregnancy, regulating both foetal growth and maternal adaptation to pregnancy. The evolution and functional importance of genomic imprinting are inextricably linked to mammalian placentation. Recent technological advances in mapping and mani…

The study was published by the Sferruzzi-Perri lab on the journal PlacentaSummary: for many years the assessment of the mouse labyrinth zone has been performed using Ultrathin Resin Toluidine Blue sections, a technique that is difficult to perform as it requires specific tools and reagents. Because of it, many labs have not performed analysis of th…

New funding awarded to Professor Wolf Reik, Head of the Epigenetics research programme at the Babraham Institute and a member of the CTR and the SRI's Steering Committee, will support research into one of the earliest and most important processes in early development. Professor Reik will receive funding through a prestigious Advanced Grant from the…

Nick Burton has just published a new studio on Nature Communications about how the response in parents to environmental stress, such as infections, can prime their offspring to better react to the same type of stress.A parent’s exposure to environmental stresses, including pathogen infections, have been reported to prime offspring responses to repe…

We are profoundly saddened by news of the death of John Robinson of Ohio State University. John was a man of immense integrity and renowned for his meticulous approach to science, in particular the proteomics of placental cell membranes. He, and his dry sense of humour, will be greatly missed.

Yassen Abbas, CTR Research Associate, publishes the research article "Generation of a three-dimensional collagen scaffold-based model of the human endometrium" in Interface Focus Click here to read the full research article

Dr Roser Vento-Tormo, Group Leader at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, is one of the ten researchers to have been honoured in the 2021 Biochemical Society Awards. These prestigious awards recognise excellence and achievement by eminent scientists and by researchers in the early stages of their career.“I am thrilled to receive the Early Career Researc…

A study by Ulla Sovio, Gordon Smith and colleagues, published in Nature Medicine, has identified metabolites predictive of fetal growth restriction (FGR) at term.The study was funded by NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre (Women’s Health theme), Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, National Institutes of Health, European Research Council…

CTR visitor Giulia Avellino to receive the President's Plenary Awardat the Society for Reproductive Investigations meeting in Vancouver.The President's Plenary Awards recognize the four highest rankedabstracts chosen from over 1000 abstracts for presentation at thePresident's New Investigator Plenary Session. Many congratulations!

CTR member Yassen Abbas has recently published a paper on "Tissue stiffness at the human maternal-fetal interface". Summary and link below. Yassen's work is  funded by both CTR and the Isaac Newton Trust. Summary:Mechanics is now widely recognised as an important regulator of cell behaviour. However, it has largely been neglected in studies of earl…

CTR visitor Katrien De Clercq was awarded the highly competitive Elsevier Placenta New Investigator Award at the recent International Federation of Placenta Association Conference in Argentina. Many congratulations!

Many congratulations to CTR funded PhD student Nadia Capatina for successfully defending her thesis this week! Nadia is one of the six PhD students fully funded by the Centre for Trophoblast Research.Nadia's aim was to investigate the effect of Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) stress on trophoblast cell lineage differentiation.Her project was to provide …