Cross-disciplinary Projects fund: funded projects
Easter Term 2025
CARE-AI: Credibility, Acceptability, and Readability of AI-Generated Pregnancy Information in Antenatal Care
Project lead: Beyza Ustun-Elayan, Department of Psychology
This project explores how AI-generated responses to common pregnancy questions are perceived by expectant families and antenatal healthcare professionals. Through co-creation with an advisory group, a set of common pregnancy questions will be developed and submitted to AI models. The resulting responses will be evaluated in focus groups for readability, credibility, consistency, feasibility, and acceptability. The findings will inform future guidelines for AI as a first-step informational tool in antenatal care and contribute to broader discussions on trust, equity, and safety in digital health.
Understanding childbearing as an existential milestone: an interdisciplinary inquiry through sociology and art
Project lead: Hao Li, Department of Sociology
This project explores how childbearing is culturally constructed as an existential milestone among Chinese women. Using semistructured
interviews and art-based methods, it examines how individuals navigate, internalize, or challenge societal expectations of fertility. By integrating sociological analysis with visual storytelling, the project captures both verbal and nonverbal dimensions of reproductive decision-making. Findings will be shared through an online exhibition and interdisciplinary workshop, fostering dialogue between social scientists and artists. This cross-disciplinary approach offers novel insights into reproduction research, highlighting affective and symbolic dimensions of fertility beyond economic and policy-driven explanations.
Lent Term 2025
The minimal pixel resolution needed in TVUS scans for endometriosis
Collaborators: Bianca Schor (Computer Science & Technology/Amsterdam UMC), Mineli Cooray (Public Health and Primary Care)
Transvaginal ultrasound scans (TVUS) constitute the first test for endometriosis. This condition affects 190 million women, is a major cause of infertility, and is complex to diagnose. We lack large TVUS databases on endometriosis, so this study aims to move towards this by exploring the minimal pixel resolution needed to detect endometriosis lesions in TVUS. Three experts will classify a sample of TVUS from healthy and endometriosis patients using a semi-automated apparatus designed to determine the optimal retinal resolution for such tasks. This interdisciplinary study provides key insights towards building essential TVUS databases that are usable, sustainable, and clinically relevant.
The Future of Reproduction: Eggs, Ethics, and Everything in Between
Project lead: Emma Mitchell-Sparke (Obstetrics & Gynaecology)
The Future of Reproduction: Eggs, Ethics, and Everything in Between will be a cross-disciplinary podcast exploring the most pressing challenges and emerging questions in reproduction. Featuring interviews with leading Cambridge researchers across biology, medicine, ethics, law, and sociology, it seeks to foster dialogue on reproductive research, technologies, rights, and societal impacts. This accessible platform will enhance public and academic engagement, highlight cutting-edge research, and ideally inspire new collaborations. With funding, we will produce high-quality episodes, ensuring sustainability and broad outreach. The goal is for the podcast to serve as a lasting resource for education, research dissemination, and interdisciplinary engagement within and outside of the Cambridge Reproduction network.
Bioengineering a multicellular endometrial model using collagen scaffolds
Collaborators: Tereza Cindrova-Davies (Physiology, Development and Neuroscience), Ruth Cameron and Serena Best (Materials Science and Metallurgy)
Responsive endometrium provides a fertile ground that enables implantation and determines pregnancy success. We will develop a novel model to study the human endometrium and ultimately its role in embryonic implantation, which will inform aspects of pregnancy complications and infertility. Current models fail to recapitulate cellular complexity of the endometrium, including tubular gland structures. We propose an alternative approach by developing bioengineered threedimensional porous collagen scaffolds, tailored for seeding the two main endometrial cell types, gland and stromal cells. We aim to optimise the seeding and culture conditions and establish a 3D scaffold-based human endometrial model, which can be used ultimately as an implantation platform.
Michaelmas Term 2024
From birth to blastocyst: a modular SciArt exhibit
Collaborators: Clara Munger (Physiology, Development & Neuroscience), Nienke Groskamp (History & Philosophy of Science), Caroline Walker (Pathology), Amy Wilkinson (Babraham Institute), Ceren Canse (Obstetrics & Gynaecology) and Erin Slatery (Loke Centre)
We propose to develop a reusable, modular exhibit on human developmental biology designed to educate and spark interest among non-scientist audiences. By integrating artistic and scientific representations, this cross-disciplinary exhibit uses art as a bridge to make complex scientific concepts accessible and interesting to lay audiences. Organised in modules, the exhibit can function as a standalone display or be incorporated into other public events to facilitate complex discussions. This educational resource aims to have a lasting impact by providing Cambridge institutions with a flexible tool for engaging the public and non-STEM academics in developmental and reproductive biology.