News

Simple treatment during pregnancy can protect baby from memory problems in later life, study in rats suggests

21 April 2021

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...

Cover image from Christina Weis, 'Surrogacy in Russia. An ethnography of reproductive labour, stratification and migration'

Comparative ethnographies of surrogacy: perceptions of the clinical labour of surrogacy in Russia, the USA and India

20 April 2021

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 (...

Researchers call for greater awareness of unintended consequences of CRISPR gene editing

14 April 2021

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...

Single-cell technique could provide ‘egg health’ indicators

24 November 2020

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...

Cambridge Reproduction Early Researchers Seminar Series (ERSS)

22 October 2020

The Cambridge Reproduction SRI is launching an Early Researchers Seminar Series (ERSS). This will be a platform for PhD Students and early career researchers (ECRs) at the University of Cambridge with research foci on reproduction to share and discuss their research with other academics from a range of disciplines also...

Fluorescent images of embryos at the morula and blastocyst stages

Placenta is initiated first, as cells of a fertilised egg divide and specialise

9 October 2020

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-...

An Evenings Invitation; with a Wink from the Bagnio (1773)

One in five Georgian Londoners had syphilis by the age of 35

18 September 2020

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...

Antenatal mitochondrial therapy lowers the chance of cardiovascular problems in offspring

19 August 2020

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...

New research explores gay mens' and lesbians' feelings about possible parenthood

23 July 2020

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...

Women who experience gestational hypertension are more likely to develop heart disease