News

Dr Jonathan Holmes shares his memories upon reaching 50 years of teaching Veterinary Anatomy at PDN:----------"After demonstrating at ‘Into the Pelvis’, the last VAP dissection practical of the academic year, a few days ago, I have, bar a few supervisions, completed my 50th year teaching the subject in the Department.I came up to Queens’ College to…

A new study has found that stresses such as systemic racism and socioeconomic disadvantage may sensitise key processes in the body during pregnancy, helping to explain why black women and their babies face significantly higher rates of complication than white women.Stresses experienced by black women, such as socioeconomic inequalities, may alter k…

Thanks to funding from the TSN ROKS Outreach Demonstrator Fund, Teaching Technicians in the Histology and Experimental Classrooms of PDN, were able to develop and trial a new outreach activity, “Good Air, Bad Air”, designed by, Taylor Thomas Lennon.We showcased the first version of the demonstration unit at the Cambridge Science Festival on, 28th M…

A new paper, co authored by Virgilio Lew, suggests a possible origin for the unknown acid source causing metabolic acidosis in sickle cell anaemia patients, a condition often associated with clinical severity and pain crises.Sickle cell anaemia, caused by the homozygous inheritance of the mutant haemoglobin S (HbS), is a highly debilitating disease…

Four members of PDN, Busma Butt, Lorna Roberts, Theresa Gross-Thenbig and Benedicte Sanson, have been nominated for the University Research Culture Celebration event at Kettles Yard on 13th May, in recognition of their efforts in creating a positive, supportive and inclusive culture at the University of Cambridge.  The Research Culture Celebration …

Congratulations to Aaliyah Razi (Gonville & Caius College), who was honoured at last month’s international annual meeting of the Society for Reproductive Investigation (SRI), held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, March 24-28, 2026.Aaliyah received an award for one of the top 10 scoring abstracts from 1200 submitted. Her work was entitled ‘miR-21-5p Rescue…

Visual spatial detection is a crucial first step in vision to guide decision-making and action. However, its neural basis in freely behaving animals remains unclear due to challenges in controlling visual input and monitoring eye- and head-position.A new study in Current Biology by Jisoo Kim (PhD student at PDN, funded by Wolfson College, PDN and S…

A new study, led by a team from PDN and the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, may explain why some tiny, newly-formed tumours disappear, while others manage to survive and eventually grow into cancer.Tumours arise when our DNA accumulates errors, or mutations, causing the cells to grow faster and ignore signals that would otherwise instruct damaged ce…

"It is universally recognised that no education in an experimental science, such as Physiology, can be regarded as satisfactory unless it includes practical exercises..."  -E.H. Starling (1934), Harris, Experimental Physiology for Medical StudentsAn educational paper by PDN's Professor Matthew Mason, and Dr Kamilah Jooganah, Senior Teaching Associ…

Congratulations to PhD student and member of the Galliano Lab, Ailie McWhinnie, on being awarded the Maria Leptin EMBO Science Journalism Fellowship.As an accomplished science communicator, Ailie has successfully led CamBRAIN as President with her infectious enthusiasm for over three years. She has done incredible work as a science writer for sever…

After waiting over a decade for LEGO to create a model set that represents the biological labs familiar from his own research work, PDN postdoc Chu-Cheng Lin has taken up the challenge and built his own model concept for an accurate biological laboratory set. By building a realistic LEGO biological laboratory and submitting it for consideration to …

Inhibition is critical for balanced cortical activity and learning. Parvalbumin-expressing cells (PV) are the most common cortical inhibitory interneurons. Strong PV activation inactivates cortical regions. However, how moderate activation of PV interneurons shapes visual perception and behaviour is not well understood.A new study in PLOS Biology b…

At the end of November, the Human Anatomy Centre, within PDN, hosted the winner of the 2025International Anatomy Immersion Award, Australian 3rd year Medical student Zac Thornton.  Coming during its inaugural year, the program offered by the Australian Institute of CPD Standards and Miga, gives one outstanding medical student in Australia the chanc…

Double congratulations to Dr Eleanor Raffan, who has just been announced as one of eight University of Cambridge researchers, who will receive a share of the European Research Council’s (ERC) record €728 million Consolidator Grant awards this year, and has also been named as one of three finalists in the 2025 Canine Health Discovery of the Year Awa…

A new study, just published in Nature Communications, led by researchers in the Roselló-Díez Lab has found a self-repair system inside the developing skeleton that helps bones recover from early growth disorders.The team discovered that when cartilage growth is interrupted, a small population of stromal cells surrounding the cartilage can switch ro…