News

A couple visiting a Brook Advisory Centre in the 1960s. Image courtesy of Brook

The not-so-swinging sixties?

21 February 2022

A new article by historian and Cambridge Reproduction member Dr Caroline Rusterholz argues that young people behaving responsibly in the 1960s helped to defeat fierce opposition to the UK’s first sexual health clinics. Her research challenges assumptions about the sexual revolution of the ‘Swinging Sixties’ and sheds new...

Breast milk in bottles (image: Jamie Grill/The Image Bank)

Live cells discovered in human breast milk could aid breast cancer research

8 February 2022

Researchers have explored the cellular changes that occur in human mammary tissue in lactating and non-lactating women, offering insight into the relationship between pregnancy, lactation and breast cancer. The study was led by researchers from the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute (CSCI) and the Department of...

How baby demands food from Mum before birth: a tale of two imprinted genes

27 December 2021

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...

Uterus study is important step towards understanding diseases that affect one third of women

17 December 2021

The most comprehensive cell atlas to date of the human uterus has identified two new epithelial cell states that can be used to distinguish two forms of uterine cancer. Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the University of Cambridge and their collaborators also identified the genetic pathways that determine two...

Celebrating interdisciplinary research at Cambridge

4 October 2021

Cambridge University video highlights importance of interdisciplinary research The video called ‘What impact will your next connection have?’ encourages researchers to get involved in the lively network of cross-School initiatives at the University. WATCH THE VIDEO HERE: 'What impact will your next connection have?’...

New study explores the links between prenatal sex steroid hormones, maternal health and autism

16 September 2021

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...

March for Choice, Dublin, 2012. Photo by William Murphy.

How the moral and emotional framing of the Irish abortion debate has shaped political and public opinion

15 September 2021

New research on Ireland's recent referendum on abortion rights examines how the framing processes used by the pro-choice movement shaped public attitudes and political treatment of abortion within the new legislative regime. Aideen O'Shaughnessy , a PhD student in the Reproductive Sociology Research Group (ReproSoc) ...

Cycles and circulation

23 August 2021

Reproduction is all about cycles: menstrual cycles, treatment cycles, population cycles and more. A team of historians has analysed how metaphors of cycles and circulation have been deployed, and how they have linked reproduction to other major topics. Cycles are among the oldest ways of grasping human existence, and of...

Researchers identify new genes linked to longer reproductive lifespan in women

4 August 2021

The age at which women go through menopause is critical for fertility and impacts healthy ageing in women, but reproductive ageing has been difficult for scientists to study and insights into the underlying biology are limited. Now, scientists have identified nearly 300 gene variations that influence reproductive lifespan...

Organoids derived from menstrual flow can avoid the need for invasive biopsies

29 June 2021

Researchers in Cambridge have published a new method of deriving endometrial organoids that can save women from undergoing an invasive procedure. Using menstrual flow, Tereza Cindrova-Davies and colleagues have been able to generate organoids that are identical to those generated from an endometrial biopsy. Organoids are...