News

Congratulations to SRI members Professor Dino Giussani (Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience) and Professor Sue Ozanne (Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science) who have, with Professor Mike Murphy (MRC Mitochrondrial Biology Unit), been awarded a £1.3m grant from the Medical Research Council (MRC) to study the relationship be…

A new study in laboratory rats has discovered a direct link between low oxygen in the womb and impaired memory function in the adult offspring. It also finds that anti-oxidant supplements during pregnancy may protect against this.Low oxygen in the womb - known as chronic fetal hypoxia - is one of the most common complications in human pregnancy. It…

A new article published this month in Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters presents the results of a multinational ethnographic study to show how perceptions of ‘clinical labour’ such as surrogacy are shaped by local moral frameworks.Marcin Smietana (ReproSoc, Cambridge University) and colleagues Sharmila Rudrappa (University of Texas at Austin) …

CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing can lead to unintended mutations at the targeted section of DNA in early human embryos, researchers have revealed. This highlights the need for further research into the effects of CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing, especially when used to edit human DNA in laboratory research.CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing is a widely used research…

Using the power of single-cell analysis, researchers at the Babraham Institute have assessed the effects of age on egg cells (oocytes) in mice, particularly looking to identify genomic and epigenetic factors that relate to reduced developmental competence. The knowledge uncovered by this research provides new insights into the mechanisms underlying…

The first stages of placental development take place days before the embryo starts to form in human pregnancies. This new finding highlights the importance of healthy placental development in pregnancy, and could lead to future improvements in fertility treatments such as IVF, and a better understanding of placental-related diseases in pregnancy.In…

250 years ago, over one-fifth of Londoners had contracted syphilis by their 35th birthday, historians have calculated in a study that offers the first robust estimate of the amount of syphilis infection in London’s population in the later eighteenth century. The same study shows that Georgian Londoners were over twice as likely to be treated for th…

Babies that experience low oxygen levels in the womb due to pregnancy complications often go on to develop heart disease in adulthood. A study using sheep has discovered that a specialised antioxidant called MitoQ can prevent heart disease at its very onset. The results are published today in the journal Science Advances.Genetics, and their interac…

A new study by Reproduction SRI member Dr Robert Pralat sheds light on how younger gay men and lesbians see the possibility of becoming parents, and suggests that we can think of feelings about parenthood in terms of a 'reproductive orientation', analogous to a sexual orientation. Dr Pralat, a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Reproductive Soci…

Women who experience high blood pressure during pregnancy are more likely to develop heart disease and heart failure in later life, according to an international team of researchers.Between 1-6% of all pregnancies in Western countries are affected by gestational hypertension, or pregnancy-induced hypertension. Clinicians increasingly recognise that…

We are delighted that Dr Kathy Niakan has been elected to the Mary Marshall and Arthur Walton Professorship of the Physiology of Reproduction from October 2020, and will become the next Chair of the Cambridge Reproduction Strategic Research Initiative (SRI). Kathy was one of the first Next Generation Fellows in the Centre for Trophoblast Research (…

Scientists from the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with the Hubrecht Institute in The Netherlands, have developed a new model to study an early stage of human development using human embryonic stem cells.Published recently in the journal Nature, the report describes a method of using human embryonic stem cells to generate a three-dimensi…

Scientists at the University of Cambridge have suggested that subtle changes to the drugs administered to mothers threatened with preterm birth or to premature babies could further improve clinical treatment and help increase their safety. While the current practice of using glucocorticoid therapy shows life-saving benefits for the preterm infant, …

Changes occur in the placenta in older pregnant mothers leading to a greater likelihood of poor health in their male offspring, a study in rats has shown. Both male and female fetuses do not grow as large in older mothers, but there are sex-specific differences in changes to placental development and function. These are likely to play a central rol…