̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Graham Burton

Nine Cambridge scientists among the new 2022 Fellows announced by the Royal Society

jg533 — Tue, 10 May 2022 11:33:12 +0000

̽��ֱ��Royal Society is a self-governing Fellowship made up of the most eminent scientists, engineers and technologists from the UK and the Commonwealth. Its Foreign Members are drawn from the rest of the world.

̽��ֱ��Society’s fundamental purpose is to recognise, promote, and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity.

This year, a total of 51 Fellows, 10 Foreign Members, and one Honorary Fellow have been selected for their outstanding contributions to science.

Sir Adrian Smith, President of the Royal Society said: “It is an honour to welcome so many outstanding researchers from around the world into the Fellowship of the Royal Society.

“Through their careers so far, these researchers have helped further our understanding of human disease, biodiversity loss and the origins of the universe. I am also pleased to see so many new Fellows working in areas likely to have a transformative impact on our society over this century, from new materials and energy technologies to synthetic biology and artificial intelligence. I look forward to seeing what great things they will achieve in the years ahead.”

̽��ֱ��Cambridge Fellows are:

Professor Graham Burton FMedSci FRS

Mary Marshall and Arthur Walton Professor Emeritus of the Physiology of Reproduction, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

Burton is a reproductive biologist whose research has focused on the early stages of human pregnancy. In particular, he showed how the placenta is established in a protective low-oxygen environment, stimulating its own development through interactions with the uterus. He demonstrated that aberrations in the early stages of placental development can adversely affect the life-long health of mother and offspring. Burton was founding Director of the Centre for Trophoblast Research, and founding Chair of the Strategic Research Initiative Cambridge Reproduction.

He said: “I am delighted to receive this recognition for myself and the field of reproductive biology, and thank colleagues and collaborators for their contributions over the years.”

Professor Roberto Cipolla FREng FRS

Professor of Information Engineering, Department of Engineering, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

Cipolla is distinguished for his research in computer vision and his contributions to the reconstruction, registration and recognition of three-dimensional objects from images. These include novel algorithms for the recovery of accurate 3D shape, visual localisation and semantic segmentation and their translation into commercial products.

He said: "This is the ultimate honour for any scientist and recognises the amazing contribution of my students, collaborators and mentors in my 30 years at Cambridge. I am also very fortunate to be working in the field of computer vision and machine learning at a time of revolutionary progress and ground-breaking applications.”

Professor Douglas Easton FMedSci FRS

Professor of Genetic Epidemiology, Centre for Cancer Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

Easton’s main research interests are in cancer genetics. He analyses large population studies to identify genetic variants that predispose to cancer, and to understand how they combine together with other factors to determine cancer risk. His work has characterised many important cancer genes such as BRCA1 and BRCA2, and identified of hundreds of common cancer predisposition variants in the non-coding genome. He co-developed the BOADICEA risk prediction model now used worldwide to guide genetic counselling and cancer prevention.

He said: "I am truly delighted and honoured to be elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society. This prestigious honour is a tribute the work of many wonderful colleagues in Cambridge and worldwide, over many years, who have made the research possible."

Professor Robin Franklin FMedSci FRS

Formerly Professor of Stem Cell Medicine, Wellcome - MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge; now Principal Investigator, Altos Labs - Cambridge Institute

̽��ֱ��central question of Franklin’s career is 'how do tissues regenerate?' To address this question, he has studied the brain, an organ notorious for its poor regenerative capacity. Working with many excellent colleagues, he has described how stem cells in the adult brain regenerate oligodendrocytes - the cells responsible for making the insulating myelin sheath around nerve fibres - once they are lost in diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS); how this process declines with age; and it can be reversed. ̽��ֱ��work has led to two regenerative medicine trials in MS.

He said: “I am absolutely delighted to have been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society - it is a huge honour.”

Professor Richard Gilbertson FMedSci FRS

Li Ka Shing Chair of Oncology and Head of Department of Oncology, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, Director of Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre and Senior Group Leader, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute

Gilbertson, a paediatric physician-scientist, has identified the origins of common and aggressive childhood brain tumours and many of the genetic alterations that drive these tumours. His research has helped establish a direct link between disordered development and the multiple different brain tumour types observed in children: contributing directly to their classification by the World Health Organisation (WHO); changing the way conventional treatments are used, sparing children from unnecessary side effects; and underpinning clinical trials of new therapies.

Gilbertson said: “I am truly delighted and humbled to receive this recognition that I share with all the wonderful students, trainees and colleagues I have worked with over the years.”

Professor Paul Lehner FMedSci FRS

Professor of Immunology and Medicine, Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

Lehner studies virus-host antagonism and how our genome is defended from invasion by RNA-derived retroelements such as HIV. His discovery of the ‘HUSH’ epigenetic silencing complex explains how the genome distinguishes new genetic material from endogenous genes through recognition of intronless DNA. This work uncovered an unanticipated surveillance system that discriminates ‘self’ from ‘non-self’ genomic DNA and defends our genome against the reverse flow of genetic information (RNA to DNA), paving the way to novel applications in medicine and biotechnology.

Lehner said: “I’m absolutely delighted to be elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society; I’ve been fortunate to work with incredibly talented people and this honour recognises the commitment of the many past and present members of my group who have contributed to our work.”

Professor Roberto Maiolino FRS

Director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmology and Professor of Experimental Astrophysics, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

Maiolino studies the formation of galaxies using observations collected at some of the largest ground-based and space telescopes. He has obtained key results on the interplay between the evolution of galaxies and the supermassive black holes at their centres. He has also investigated the enrichment of chemical elements across the cosmic epochs, as well as the origin and nature of dust particles in the early Universe.

He said: “I am truly honoured by such a prestigious appointment. Being a Fellow of the Royal Society will certainly foster my research activities and will allow me to further promote exciting, cutting-edge projects.”

Professor Angelos Michaelides FRS

1968 Professor of Chemistry, Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

Michaelides’ work involves the development and application of theoretical methods to better understand contemporary problems in chemistry, physics, and materials science. His group places a particular focus on developing and applying computer simulation approaches that provide the fundamental molecular-level insight needed to help address contemporary global challenges related to water, energy, and the environment.

He said: “Holy moly! I’m delighted to have been elected an FRS and very grateful to all the outstanding students, post-docs, collaborators, and mentors I’ve had over the years without whom this would never have happened.”

Professor Jason William Chin FMedSci FRS

Head, Centre for Chemical and Synthetic Biology, and Joint Head, Division of Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology; Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge; Associate Faculty in Synthetic Genomics, Wellcome Sanger Institute

Chin has engineered the genetic code of living cells to synthesise modified proteins and non-canonical polymers. To accomplish this, he created new translational machinery and codons to reprogram the genetic code, going well-beyond prior work using amber suppression. He then completely synthesised a bacterial genome in which he reduced the number of sense codons in its genetic code. ̽��ֱ��codons thus unused were reassigned to encode non-canonical amino acids. Chin's fundamental advances have been widely used to drive discovery, including to define the molecular consequences of post-translational modifications, define protein interactions in cells, and provide mechanistic insight into enzymes.

̽��ֱ��nine Cambridge researchers were all selected for their exceptional contributions to science.

It is an honour to welcome so many outstanding researchers from around the world into the Fellowship of the Royal Society.

Sir Adrian Smith, President of the Royal Society

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Surviving birth

lw355 — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 09:00:28 +0000

Researchers at one of the busiest maternity hospitals in the world aim to help more women survive complications giving birth.

"Reproduction matters to us all": latest issue of Horizons magazine

lw355 — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 11:26:45 +0000

Professor Kathy Niakan talks about why it’s vital to take a multidisciplined approach to understanding the urgent challenges posed by reproduction today – and introduces our Spotlight on some of this work, highlighted in the latest issue of Cambridge's Horizons magazine.

‘Mini-placentas’ could provide a model for early pregnancy

cjb250 — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 18:00:49 +0000

Many pregnancies fail because the embryo does not implant correctly into the lining of the womb (uterus) and fails to form a placental attachment to the mother. Yet, because of the complexities of studying this early period of our development, very little is understood about what is happening normally and what can go wrong. Animals are too dissimilar to humans to provide a good model of placental development and implantation.

“ ̽��ֱ��placenta is absolutely essential for supporting the baby as it grows inside the mother,” says Dr Margherita Turco, the study’s first author, from the Departments of Pathology and Physiology, Development and Neuroscience at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. “When it doesn’t function properly, it can result in serious problems, from pre-eclampsia to miscarriage, with immediate and lifelong consequences for both mother and child. But our knowledge of this important organ is very limited because of a lack of good experimental models.”

Efforts to grow human placental cells started over 30 years ago in the Pathology department where Professors Ashley Moffett and Charlie Loke were studying cellular events in the first few weeks of pregnancy. With their chief technician, Lucy Gardner, they found ways to isolate and characterise placental trophoblast cells. These techniques, combined with the organoid culture system, enabled the generation of miniature functional models of the early placenta – or ‘mini-placentas’.

In the past few years, a new field of research has blossomed that uses these organoids – often referred to as ‘mini-organs’ – enabling insights into human biology and disease. At the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, one of the world leaders in organoid research, scientists are using organoid cultures to grow everything from ‘mini-brains’ to ‘mini-livers’ to ‘mini-lungs’.

In a study funded by Wellcome and the Centre for Trophoblast Research, the Cambridge team was able to grow organoids using cells from villi – tiny frond-like structures – taken from placental tissue. These trophoblast organoids are able to survive long-term, are genetically stable and organise into villous-like structures that secrete essential proteins and hormones that would affect the mother’s metabolism during the pregnancy. Further analysis showed that the organoids closely resemble normal first-trimester placentas. In fact, the organoids so closely model the early placenta that they are able to record a positive response on an over-the-counter pregnancy test.

Professor Graham Burton, a co-author and Director of the Centre for Trophoblast Research, which last year celebrated its tenth anniversary, says: “These ‘mini-placentas’ build on decades of research and we believe they will transform work in this field. They will play an important role in helping us investigate events that happen during the earliest stages of pregnancy and yet have profound consequences for the life-long health of the mother and her offspring. ̽��ֱ��placenta supplies all the oxygen and nutrients essential for growth of the fetus, and if it fails to develop properly the pregnancy can sadly end with a low birthweight baby or even a stillbirth.”

In addition, the organoids may shed light on other mysteries surrounding the relationships between the placenta, the uterus and the fetus: why, for example, is the placenta able to prevent some infections passing from the mother’s blood to the fetus while others, such as Zika virus, are able to pass through this barrier? ̽��ֱ��organoids may also be used for screening the safety of drugs to be used in early pregnancy, to understand how chromosomal abnormalities may perturb normal development, and possibly even provide stem cell therapies for failing pregnancies.

Last year, the same team supported by Cambridge’s Centre for Trophoblast Research reported growing miniature functional models of the uterine lining.

“Now that we’ve developed organoid models of both sides of the interface – maternal tissue and placental tissue – we can start to look at how these two sides talk to each other,” adds Professor Ashley Moffett.

Professor Moffett also co-directed a recent study published in Nature that used genomics and bioinformatics approaches to map over 70,000 single cells at the junction of the uterus and placenta. This study revealed how the cells talk to each other to modify the immune response and enable the pregnancy, presenting new and unexpected cell states in the uterus and placenta, and showing which genes are switched on in each cell.

References

Turco, MY et al. Trophoblast organoids as a model for maternal-fetal interactions during human placentation. Nature; 28 Nov 2018; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0753-3

Vento-Tormo, R, et al. Single-cell reconstruction of the early maternal–fetal interface in humans. Nature; 14 Nov 2018; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0698-6

Researchers say that new ‘mini-placentas’ – a cellular model of the early stages of the placenta – could provide a window into early pregnancy and help transform our understanding of reproductive disorders. Details of this new research are published today in the journal Nature.

̽��ֱ��placenta is absolutely essential for supporting the baby as it grows inside the mother. When it doesn’t function properly, it can result in serious problems

Margherita Turco

Title: Image reproduced with the permission of SPD Swiss Precision Diagnostics GmbH (SPD)

Researcher profile: Dr Margherita Turco

Dr Margherita Turco began her career studying the development of embryos in domestic animals during her studies for Veterinary Biotechnology at the ̽��ֱ�� of Bologna, in Italy. During her PhD in Molecular Medicine at the European Institute of Oncology in Milano, she became interested in how early cell lineage decisions are made and began using various stem cells models to address this question.

This led Margherita to come to Cambridge in 2012 to carry out her postdoctoral work on human trophoblast stem cells at Cambridge’s Centre for Trophoblast Research (CTR), during which time she was awarded a Marie Curie Fellowship. She now has a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship that has enabled her to build up her own research group.

Margherita’s goal is to understand how the human placenta grows and develops during pregnancy.

“ ̽��ֱ��placenta is a remarkable organ that is formed early in pregnancy. It plays the crucial role of nourishing and protecting the baby throughout its development before birth,” she says.

There is a lot that can go wrong during this period, however.

“Complications occurring during pregnancy, such as pre-eclampsia, fetal growth restriction, stillbirth, miscarriage and premature birth, are principally due to defective placental function. These conditions, which collectively affect around one in five pregnancies, can pose a risk to both the baby and mother’s health. Understanding early placental development is the key to understanding successful pregnancy.”

Human placental development has been a ‘black box’ for ethical and practical reasons. “ ̽��ֱ��lack of reliable experimental models that accurately mimic how placental cells behave has hindered our ability to ask even quite basic questions,” she says.

To address this issue, Margherita was funded by the CTR to develop models of the human placenta.. Her mentors have included Professors Ashley Moffett and Graham Burton from the Centre, and Dr Myriam Hemberger from the Babraham Institute, bringing together different a wide range of expertise to this challenging project.

Margherita uses a type of model known as an ‘organoid’ and has now managed to generate organoid models from both the mother’s uterus and the placenta, the two sides of the maternal-fetal interface.

“As their name suggests, organoids are essentially mini-organs grown in the laboratory that preserve the normal cellular architecture and function,” she says. “They have proved to be powerful tools in investigating development and biological functions in many other organ systems – the heart, gut, liver, kidney and brain. They can also be used for screening drugs and studying how pathogens affect tissues. I believe they will be equally transformative for the investigation of early pregnancy and the origin of later complications.”

Cambridge has been the ideal place for Margherita to carry out her research because of the unique concentration of placental and stem cell biologists within the CTR.

“There is no other place in the world with such a combination of skills, knowledge and resources,” she says.

“I hope to be able to uncover the mysterious events that occur early in human pregnancy that previously were not possible to study. In the longer term, I hope this will alleviate the suffering experienced by couples affected by infertility or complications of pregnancy.”

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Miniature ‘womb lining’ grown in lab could reveal secrets of menstrual cycle and early pregnancy

cjb250 — Mon, 10 Apr 2017 15:30:19 +0000

̽��ֱ��mucosal lining inside the uterus is called the endometrium. Over the course of the menstrual cycle, its composition changes, becoming thicker and rich with blood vessels in preparation for pregnancy, but if the woman does not conceive, the uterus sheds this tissue, causing the woman’s period.

A team from the Centre for Trophoblast Research, which this year celebrates its tenth anniversary, was able to grow the organoids in culture from cells derived from endometrial tissue and maintain the organoids in culture for several months, faithfully reproducing the genetic signature of the endometrium – in other words, the pattern of activity of genes in the lining of the uterus. They also demonstrated that the organoids respond to female sex hormones and early pregnancy signals, secreting what are collectively known as ‘uterine milk’ proteins that nourish the embryo during the first months of pregnancy.

̽��ֱ��findings of the study, funded by the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust and the Centre for Trophoblast Research, are published today in the journal Nature Cell Biology.

̽��ֱ��organoids are capable of generating both secretory (red) and epithelial (cyan) cells of the uterus. Image: Centre for Trophoblast Research

“These organoids provide a major step forward in investigating the changes that occur during the menstrual cycle and events during early pregnancy when the placenta is established,” says Dr Margherita Turco, the study’s first author. “These events are impossible to capture in a woman, so until now we have had to rely on animal studies.”

“Events in early pregnancy lay the foundations for a successful birth, and our new technique should provide a window into this events,” adds Professor Graham Burton, Director of the Centre for Trophoblast Research, and joint senior author with Ashley Moffett of the study. “There’s increasing evidence that complications of pregnancy, such as restricted growth of the fetus, stillbirth and pre-eclampsia – which appear later in pregnancy – have their origins around the time of implantation, when the placenta begins to develop.”

Research in animal species such as mice and sheep has shown that factors secreted by the endometrial glands are critical for enabling a developing fertilised egg (known as the ‘conceptus’) to implant into the wall of the uterus. There is also strong evidence that the conceptus sends signals to the endometrial glands that then stimulate the development of the placenta. In this way, the conceptus is able to stimulate its own development through a ‘dialogue’ with the mother; if it fails, the result is loss of the pregnancy or severe growth restriction of the fetus.

Professor Burton and colleagues believe that using the organoids will allow them to investigate in greater detail how the conceptus communicates with the glands, identifying the full repertoire of factors released in response and testing their effects on placental tissues. His team will be collaborating with the Bourn Hall Clinic – a fertility clinic near Cambridge – to investigate whether parts of this circuitry are impaired or deficient in women experiencing difficulty in conceiving, and if so to devise potential new treatments.

̽��ֱ��technique also enables the researchers to grow organoids from endometrial cancer cells. As proof-of-principle, this will allow them to model and understand diseases of the endometrium, including cancer of the uterus and endometriosis.

Organoid cultures have proven to be powerful tools for investigating the behaviour of other organ systems. Members of the Centre for Trophoblast Research are confident that their new advance will provide a much-needed window on events during the earliest stages of pregnancy, when the conceptus and mother first physically interact.

Reference
Turco, MY et al. Long-term, hormone-responsive organoid cultures of human endometrium in a chemically defined medium. Nature Cell Biology; 10 April 2017; DOI: 10.1038/ncb3516

Scientists at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge have succeeded in growing miniature functional models of the lining of the womb (uterus) in culture. These organoids, as they are known, could provide new insights into the early stages of pregnancy and conditions such as endometriosis, a painful condition that affects as many as two million women in the UK.

These organoids provide a major step forward in investigating the changes that occur during the menstrual cycle and events during early pregnancy

Margherita Turco

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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Great expectations in pregnancy research

amb206 — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Complications in pregnancy represent a persistent and major problem in public health. ̽��ֱ��first three months after conception are known to be the most critical, with as many as 20% of pregnancies lost during this time. For pregnancies that develop beyond 24 weeks, between 0.5 and 1% result in death of the baby, either in the womb or in the first four weeks of life. Premature birth can incur major complications associated with delivery, immediate care of the infant, childhood diseases, and educational and social problems in later life. Not only is there an emotional cost to families, but an economic assessment in the USA reported that the cumulative subsequent healthcare and social costs associated with one year’s worth of pre-term deliveries was $26 billion. Understanding and intervening to prevent these events is clearly crucial.

Although some advances have been made, the dismaying fact is that the rates of stillbirth have generally remained static over the past 20–30 years. This partly reflects an incomplete understanding of the biological events that lead to these complications of pregnancy. Determining what these mechanisms might be is essential for devising new strategies of intervention, and applying in-depth scientific studies to human pregnancy is now seen as vital.

Two multidisciplinary initiatives in Cambridge have recently embarked on improving our understanding of pregnancy and its outcomes: a large antenatal screening of women at the Rosie Maternity Hospital in Cambridge and the recent endowment of a Centre for Trophoblast Research within the School of Biological Sciences. Both initiatives build on the wealth of expertise in the biology of pregnancy that exists across Cambridge.

Screening for adverse outcomes

A four-year research project that aims to monitor 5000 pregnant women commenced in 2007 under the leadership of Professor Gordon Smith in the ̽��ֱ��’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. A multidisciplinary team of translational researchers in both the School of Clinical Medicine and the School of Biological Sciences are participating in the project, which is funded under the Women’s Health theme of the UK Department of Health’s Cambridge Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre.

Women enrolling in the study are scanned and give blood samples at 12, 20, 28 and 36 weeks of gestation, allowing detailed characterisation of the baby’s growth and development. Thanks to an industrial collaboration with GE Healthcare, the long-term loan of two state-of-the-art scanners will enable real-time three-dimensional scanning of the babies in utero. At birth, samples of placenta and cord blood will be obtained and stored.

̽��ֱ��study is prospective; for those women whose pregnancies sadly have complications or adverse outcomes (such as pre-eclampsia, spontaneous pre-term birth, stillbirth or low-birth-weight babies), the stored samples will be retrieved and compared with controls. These samples then become the focus of extensive clinical and biological analyses to try to establish the cause. Studies will analyse the development and function of the placenta and the effect of oxidative stress; the expression or silencing of genes in relation to whether they came from the mother or the father (known as genomic imprinting); the maternal–foetal immune interaction; and the genes that are expressed in the placenta. ̽��ֱ��MRC Epidemiology Unit will conduct follow-up studies of the growth and development of the babies who have been carefully monitored during the pregnancy.

̽��ֱ��hope is that this detailed characterisation of foetal development, on such a large scale, will lead to mechanistic studies on the causes of common clinical problems in pregnancy. As well as providing refined risk assessment, novel treatments might be identified that could improve the outcome of pregnancies in women deemed to be at higher risk.

Centre for Trophoblast Research

̽��ֱ��recent endowment of the Centre for Trophoblast Research, due to be launched on 9 July 2008, is a highly innovative initiative aimed at promoting research into trophoblast biology both within Cambridge and on the wider national and international stages. ̽��ֱ��trophoblast is the cell type that forms the interface between the foetus and its mother, supplying nutrients to support the growth of the foetus. It is fundamental to successful pregnancy and must interact intimately with the maternal cells lining the uterus, leading to the formation of the placenta.

In humans, this interaction is particularly invasive and, during the first few weeks of pregnancy, the foetus becomes completely embedded within the wall of the uterus. This form of placentation, seen only among the great apes, poses unique immunological and haemodynamic challenges. ̽��ֱ��invading trophoblast cells, which are genetically related to, but distinct from, those of the mother, must negotiate passage with her immune system to allow them to reach their target – the specialised blood vessels in the wall of the uterus. As a result of this invasion, the vessels undergo major structural changes that ensure the placenta has a plentiful and continuous supply of blood in later pregnancy.

There is now abundant evidence that the major complications of pregnancy are associated with deficient trophoblast invasion, resulting in aberrant maternal blood flow to the placenta. Research performed in Cambridge has demonstrated that, paradoxically, too much flow in early pregnancy results in miscarriage, whereas too little in later pregnancy is associated with low birth weight and pre-eclampsia. These new insights have radically changed our understanding of human pregnancy and have helped to explain why miscarriage and pre-eclampsia are virtually unique to humans. Studying trophoblast biology is therefore not only of basic scientific interest but is also key to understanding the root causes of these pregnancy disorders.

Raising hopes for future pregnancies

̽��ֱ��aim of these multidisciplinary initiatives across Cambridge is to arrive at a better understanding of the biology of normal and complicated human pregnancy. Only by doing so can scientists hope to develop new diagnostic tests to identify women at increased risk of complications and, potentially, new interventions that might prevent the life-long effects of these complications on mothers and their children.

Participating researchers

Antenatal screening initiative (Principal Investigator: Prof Gordon Smith)

Dr Steve Charnock-Jones and Dr Miguel Constância (Dept of Obstetrics and Gynaecology); Prof Graham Burton, Prof Abby Fowden, Dr Dino Giussani and Dr Anne Ferguson-Smith (Dept of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience); Dr Ashley Moffett (Dept of Pathology); Prof David Dunger (Dept of Paediatrics); Dr Ian White (MRC Biostatistics Unit); Dr Ken Ong (MRC Epidemiology Unit).

̽��ֱ��project is within the Women’s Health theme of the Cambridge Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre – a partnership between Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, and created by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). These themes focus on translating advances in basic medical research from the laboratory to the hospital clinic.

Centre for Trophoblast Research (Director: Prof Graham Burton)

Participating researchers will be announced in 2008. ̽��ֱ��Centre will facilitate research by providing flexible and responsive funding for seminars, workshops and visiting scholars, as well as laboratory space in the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience. ̽��ֱ��Centre also aims to encourage the next generation through graduate studentships and postdoctoral fellowships.

For more information, please contact the authors Professor Gordon Smith at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (gcss2@cam.ac.uk) or Professor Graham Burton at the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience (gjb2@cam.ac.uk). Please go towww.trophoblast.cam.ac.ukfor more information about the Centre for Trophoblast Research.

Most pregnancies develop normally but when complications arise they can have devastating effects. Two recent initiatives in Cambridge hope to deliver a new understanding of events during this critical period of human life.

Thanks to an industrial collaboration with GE Healthcare, the long-term loan of two state-of-the-art scanners will enable real-time three-dimensional scanning of the babies in utero.

Professor Graham Burton

Human placental villi showing signs of oxidative stress

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