News

Professor Moffett is Emeritus Professor of Reproductive Immunology in the Department of Pathology 

On 12th May, 2026, the FibroidsFREE team from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology hosted the event “Breaking the Silence About Uterine Fibroids: A Pathway to Legislative Change” at Homerton College, Cambridge with support from the Centre for Science and Policy (CSaP) and Hologic. Uterine fibroids affect 70-80% of women by the time of menop…

A University of Cambridge study has found that stresses such as systemic racism and socioeconomic disadvantage may sensitise key processes in the body during pregnancy, helping to explain why black women and their babies face significantly higher rates of complication than white women.Grace Amedor, PhD student of Cambridge Reproduction member Dino …

Bringing together expertise from across the University of Cambridge, the recent workshop focused on advancing climate research, informing policy, fostering innovation, and equipping future leaders with the knowledge and skills needed to address the climate crisis.Read the full article to explore the insights, initiatives and opportunities shaping t…

We are delighted to congratulate Cambridge Reproduction member Dr Valentina Lorenzi for the award of the 2026 Beddington Medal by the British Society for Developmental Biology (BSDB). The medal is one of the UK's most prestigious early-career awards in developmental biology, recognising the best PhD thesis defended in the previous year.Valentina re…

On Thursday 13 November, Cambridge Reproduction joined forces with Cambridge Zero to convene a cross-disciplinary event focused on 'Reproduction and Sustainability'. Participants explored linkages between reproduction and sustainability at different scales, from individual experiences to populations and global systems. The programme was extremely w…

Research uncovers how a poet-physician turned the innovation in assisted reproduction into a moving story and amplified the women involved.Previously unseen documents show how a poet performed a major ghostwriting job on the autobiography of the two British pioneers behind the world’s first “test-tube baby”, so that the book used emotional storytel…

Cambridge Reproduction Steering Committee member Amanda Sferruzzi-Perri and other researchers across Cambridge are spotlighted in a new feature as part of the SBS theme focus of Women’s Health. As theme lead Amanda says, “It’s crazy that biological sex has been so overlooked in understanding the body’s responses to drugs and treatments.It’s time we…

Nick Hopwood, Professor of History of Science and Medicine, and one of the three Cambridge Reproduction Co-Chairs has been recently announced as chair of the Oversight Group for a public dialogue on reviewing the 14-day rule for human embryo research.This initiative, a partnership between the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and UKRI Sciencewise, invo…

The placenta and the hormones it produces may have played a crucial role in the evolution of the human brain, while also leading to the behavioural traits that have made human societies able to thrive and expand, according to a new hypothesis proposed by researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford.Cambridge Reproduction member Dr Alex…

On 14 May 2025, a group of Cambridge Reproduction members from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, led by Dr Priscilla Day-Walsh, participated in a parliamentary session on Reproductive Equity and the Fibroids Crisis. The meeting was organised by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Black Health and hosted by MP Paulette Hamilton i…

Across the world, fertility rates are falling, while families are choosing to have children later on in life. To help them conceive, many couples turn to assisted reproductive technologies such as IVF; however, success rates remain low and the process can be expensive. Mo Vali and Dr Staci Weiss hope that AI can change this. They are leading From W…

A major new exhibition open now at Cambridge University Library shines a light on health and disease in the medieval world – including how our ancestors sought to manage infertility, childbirth and menstruation. Featuring dozens of unique, centuries-old medical manuscripts, Curious Cures: Medicine in the Medieval World brings together texts, diagra…

Modern humans descended from not one, but at least two ancestral populations that drifted apart and later reconnected, long before modern humans spread across the globe.A study published in Nature Genetics, co-authored Cambridge Reproduction member Aylwyn Scally, has discovered that modern humans descended from not one, but at least two ancestral p…

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have discovered genes linked to obesity in both Labradors and humans. They say the effects can be over-ridden with a strict diet and exercise regime.Researchers studying British Labrador retrievers have identified multiple genes associated with canine obesity and shown that these genes are also associated …