University Professor in Fetal and Placental Physiology

Lister Institute for Preventative Medicine Research Fellow (2018-2023)

Hans Sigrist Research Prize Fellow (2020)

Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellow (2014-2019)

Further details to follow

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.