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Researchers from the University of Cambridge have created model embryos from mouse stem cells that form a brain, a beating heart, and the foundations of all the other organs of the body – a new avenue for recreating the first stages of life.The team, led by Professor Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, developed the embryo model without eggs or sperm, and in…

Researchers studying mice have found the first evidence of how a mother’s gut microbes can help in the development of the placenta, and the healthy growth of the baby.A new study has found that a species of gut bacteria, known to have beneficial effects for health in mice and humans, changes the mother’s body during pregnancy and affects the struct…

Scientists 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 generation in the lab - such tissue is in short supply but is needed for drug screening a…

There is mounting evidence of increased risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in women who, when pregnant, experienced gestational diabetes (GDM). The elevated risk is observed in the decade after delivery.In their study published in Nutrition and Diabetes, researchers from the Ozanne and Koulman groups studied mi…

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 light on the controversial …

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 Pharmacology at the University…

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…

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 main endometrial cell typ…

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…

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), offers a critical analysis of th…

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 thinking about life and death…

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 in women. Additionally, in …

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 self-organising, three-dimen…

Scientists have identified key molecular events in the developing human embryo between days 7 and 14 - one of the most mysterious, yet critical, stages of our development. The second week of gestation represents a critical stage of embryo development, or embryogenesis. Failure of development during this time is one of the major causes of early preg…

Women who will develop potentially life-threatening disorders during pregnancy can be identified early when hormone levels in the placenta are tested, a new study has shown.Nearly all of the organ systems of the mother’s body need to alter their function during pregnancy so that the baby can grow. If the mother’s body cannot properly adapt to the g…