Cambridge Conversations: Maternal Health

Professor Amanda Sferruzzi-Perri is a world-leading expert in fetal and placental physiology at the University of Cambridge. A developmental physiologist, her research seeks to uncover how the dynamic relationship between the mother, placenta, and fetus shapes pregnancy success and influences health across the lifespan. Her work is transforming understanding of pregnancy complications and the early-life origins of disease, with far-reaching implications for maternal and child health worldwide (https://www.pdn.cam.ac.uk/directory/amanda-sferruzzi-perri).

After completing her PhD at the University of Adelaide, Amanda established her research group at Cambridge through a series of highly competitive fellowships, including a Royal Society Research Fellowship. She was appointed to a permanent academic position in 2019 and promoted to Professor in 2022. She now leads an internationally recognised research programme that combines innovative pre-clinical models with donated human samples, working in collaboration with researchers across the globe to address some of the most pressing challenges in reproductive and developmental health.

Amanda has published over 100 scientific papers, and her research is currently supported by major awards from the Wellcome Trust and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). Her contributions have been recognised with numerous prestigious honours, including the Hans Sigrist Research Prize, a Lister Institute Prize, the Society for Reproduction and Fertility Young Investigator Award, and the Andrée Gruslin Award from the International Federation of Placenta Associations.

Beyond her research, Amanda is a passionate advocate for science, an inspiring mentor, and a committed communicator, actively engaging in public outreach and education to support and train the next generation of scientists.

She is also leading the University of Cambridge’s mission to advance understanding of women’s biology and health — a major cross-disciplinary initiative aimed at accelerating research, education, and impact in this historically under-represented area of science (https://www.bio.cam.ac.uk/research/womens-biology-and-health).

Dr Priscilla Day-Walsh is a Next Generation Fellow at the Loke Centre for Trophoblast Research based in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at the University of Cambridge. She is also as a Bye-Fellow at Homerton College, University of Cambridge and is a visiting scientist at the Quadram Institute Biosciences in Norwich, UK.

Her research bridges microbiology, developmental biology, pharmacology, multi-omics, and data from large pregnancy cohorts to uncover how the microbiome shapes pregnancy physiology. By moving beyond simple associations, she aims to identify key mechanisms that link microbial activity to maternal and fetal health. She seeks to identify sensitive microbiome-based biomarkers and therapeutic targets, for the screening, prevention, and treatment of pregnancy complications.

Dr Day-Walsh is also a passionate advocate for equity in reproductive research, healthcare, and innovation. She engages widely with the public, clinicians, researchers, and policymakers (nationally and internationally) to champion inclusive approaches, especially highlighting the urgent need for action on uterine fibroids and disparities in reproductive outcomes.

Roser Vento-Tormo’s research interest is to understand the influence of cellular microenvironments on individual cellular identities and responses, in the context of development and immunity. Her team (https://ventolab.org/) employs single-cell and spatial transcriptomics methods to deconstruct the cell signals in human organs and tissues, and utilise this information to inform the reconstruction of novel in vitro models. Essential for this work, is the novel computational tools her team develops to build cell–cell interactions networks from transcriptomics data. Her team has used these computational and genomics tools to generate atlases of the human reproductive tissues leading to transformative advances in the area of women’s health.

Vento-Tormo work has been funded by many recognised international agencies (ERC, Wellcome-LEAP, CZI), and she has been awarded multiple prizes, including the Early Career Research Award from the Biochemistry Society (2021) and the Michelson & Science Prize Finalist (2023).

Tereza Cindrova-Davies received her MPhil and PhD from the University of Cambridge. Tereza worked as a research fellow at the University of Cambridge between 2003-2022, held a lectureship in Human Genetics and Developmental Biology/Embryology at the Queen Mary University of London between 2022-2023, before returning back to the Centre of Trophoblast Research in January 2024 to take on the role of the Licensing Manager.

Tereza has been awarded international prizes for her research, including the Elsevier Science New Investigator Award at the IFPA meeting in Glasgow in 2005, and the Gabor Than award for ‘outstanding contributions to the field of placentology in all its aspects’, at the IFPA meeting in Graz in 2008.

Tereza’s research has embraced the role of oxidative stress in normal and pathological pregnancies, placental senescence and H2S in pregnancy pathologies. Early pregnancy is a key area of Tereza’s current research interests. Her recent research concentrates on investigating early placental development, the role of the human yolk sac and histotrophic nutrition.

Tereza has been instrumental in developing human and mouse organoid cultures, and used these to investigate the function of the endometrial glands in early pregnancy. In addition, she recently succeeded in deriving physiologically relevant endometrial organoid cultures non-invasively from menstrual flow. Her future research is directed to explore why the majority of human pregnancies fail, either before implantation or as a result of early pregnancy loss.