News

Researchers have discovered that genes underlying specific behavioural traits in golden retrievers - from trainability to fear of strangers - also shape human personality and mental health.A study led by Dr Eleanor Raffan, and first author PDN PhD student Enoch Alex, provides a window into canine emotions, revealing why some golden retrievers are m…

Two PDN scientists, along with colleagues in the School of Biological Sciences, and other European institutions, have been awarded Synergy Grants from the European Research Council (ERC). This major funding will support interdisciplinary projects in innovative areas of the biological sciences.ERC Synergy Grants foster collaboration between outstand…

Wellcome have awarded a £1.8 million grant to a Cambridge-led research consortium to study the life-long and intergenerational mental health effects of extreme heat on pregnant women and their children.An international team of researchers from Cambridge, University of New South Wales Sydney, Australia (UNSW) and University of Thessaly, Greece (UTH)…

In mammals, fertility is controlled by the brain via the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Gonadal (HPG) axis. Before puberty, HPG hormone secretion is suppressed or low. Just before puberty, sex steroid hormones released from the gonads increase and act on the hypothalamus and pituitary. What regulates the activation of the HPG axis at puberty, and controls …

When Bifidobacterium breve, widely available in probiotic drinks, is present in the gut of pregnant females it boosts the placenta’s production of pregnancy hormones to reduce the likelihood of complications like preeclampsia and miscarriage.Research led by PDN has found the first clear evidence that the ‘good’ gut bacteria Bifidobacterium breve in…

Celebrations at the University of Cambridge honour the life, work and legacy of Sir Robert Edwards, whose work revolutionised fertility treatment through the invention of in vitro fertilisation.A Nobel prize-winner and one of the most influential scientists of the twentieth century, Edwards spent much of his career in the Department of Physiology a…

Professor Mayank Mehta (UCLA, California) will give a special seminar at 11am on Wednesday 1st October 2025, in the Physiology Building's Hodgkin-Huxley seminar room.All are welcome.Seminar title:  Hippocampal enigmas: Memory, Alzheimer's and AIAbstract:  After a century of fantastic progress and a Nobel Prize, the hippocampus remains enigmatic. …

New findings from the Roberts lab have identified a specific brain circuit in primates that, when disrupted, reduces motivation and increases anxiety — symptoms closely linked to depression. The findings, published in Science, offer new insights into how therapies like transcranial magnetic brain stimulation (TMS) and ketamine may work.The team, le…

Congratulations to Enoch Alex, a PhD student member of the Raffan Lab, who was a key member of a team that won the Market Matchmakers Award at the recent Crick x Cambridge Innovation Challenge, hosted at the Francis Crick Institute. The high-profile event challenges participants to transform scientific discoveries into viable, real-world solutions.…

A new study from the Roberts Lab, led by Dr Kevin Mulvihill, and published in Biological Psychiatry, reveals that not all anxiety is created equal—and neither is its treatment. Dr Mulvihill and Professor Roberts have discovered that different forms of heightened anxiety-like behaviour, driven by dysregulation in specific regions of the prefrontal c…

This year's summer meeting of the Anatomical Society ("Human Cerebral Cortex Development III") was held at St John's College, Oxford, from 14-16 July 2025. Clare Baker, Cecilia Brassett, Ceri Davies, & Sarah Fawcett from PDN were among the 200 participants. One of PDN's Year 4 clinical students, Ryan Smith, gave an oral presentation on a novel simp…

Two representatives of PDN won prizes at the recent Summer Scientific Meeting of BACA (British Association of Clinical Anatomists) at Aston University, Birmingham, for their oral presentations.Dave Duru (Gonville & Caius, Part II student from the academic year that has just ended) won the Conrad Lewin Prize for best oral presentation for the talk, …

A new paper from the Herbison lab, published in Nature Communications, investigates how stress has a substantial negative impact on fertility.Noradrenergic (AN) neurons are considered to be one group of cells that convey stress signals within the brain. A new study led by Dr Szilvia Vas and Dr Paul Morris in the Herbison laboratory at the Universit…

Congratulations to Dr Keita Tamura who has received the MRC New Investigator Award. The award will support Dr Tamura's research into object memory.Why can we easily notice a friend in a crowd and say ‘Hello’? Previous studies have revealed how visual inputs are analysed, memorised and recalled, but how the recalled memory is then used to improve pe…

Dr Geula Hanin awarded MRC Career Development Award to decode the biology of breastfeeding and early life nutritionWe are delighted to announce that Dr Geula Hanin has been awarded the prestigious MRC Career Development Award to launch a research programme on the biology of breastfeeding and early life nutrition. As part of this award, she will joi…