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Online Placental Biology Course 2021, 5th to 9th July 2021

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Online Placental Biology Course 2021, 5th to 9th July 2021

Written by Erica Watson, Tereza Cindrova-Davies, Noelia Corral-Ferre and Kathy Niakan

The Centre for Trophoblast Research at the University of Cambridge announces a bursary/scholarship initiative to invite international students, researchers and healthcare professionals to take part in a virtual course on placenta biology.

Diversity lies at the heart of our approach to investigating maternal-fetal interactions during pregnancy. We hope to build on the initiative of Cambridge-Africa to encourage new collaborations with African researchers. For inspiration, take a look at this article on Dr Annettee Nakimuli’s work and her collaborations with Cambridge researchers.

The Placenta Biology Course is an intensive five-day course running from the 5th to 9th July 2021. It involves high profile researchers based at the University of Cambridge, who will lecture and demonstrate experimental methodology on topics including human & mouse placental development, endometrial and trophoblast organoids, materno-fetal interactions, immunology during pregnancy, placental transport and metabolism, epigenetics, genome editing, clinical design, and grant writing.

The course has been running since 2012, though due to travel restrictions caused by the pandemic, the Centre for Trophoblast Research is offering the course online. This new online initiative allows for a greater number of participants to attend, and we wish to broaden access to students, postdoctoral researchers, group leaders, medical and veterinary healthcare professionals, and industry colleagues from around the world.

The Centre for Trophoblast Research was established in 2007 and brings together academic clinicians and basic scientists from diverse disciplines within University of Cambridge and affiliated institutions in order to find new approaches to the many complications of pregnancy. Our aim is to provide a rich intellectual environment that encourages and facilitates novel collaborations, and which will ultimately lead to us finding ways to improve pregnancy outcomes.

The Online Placental Biology Course is a mix of pre-recorded lectures and practical sessions given by investigators at the forefront of the placental biology field. There will be an opportunity to interact with lecturers and fellow participants at live question and answer sessions, networking events and participant flash-talk sessions. Whilst it will be a busy and intense week, we hope it will bring new insights into the study of the placenta, which will impact your own research, and perhaps even leading to future collaborations among researchers at the University of Cambridge and around the world.

 Applications for the Placenta Biology Course and bursaries/scholarships can be found here. A number of full or partial bursaries/scholarships will be available to eligible candidates on a first come, first served basis.

The course is followed up by the Centre for Trophoblast Research Annual Meeting on the 13th and 14th of July. This year we will deliver a special online conference on “Placental-endometrial dialogue and pregnancy” to celebrate the achievements of retired Director Prof. Graham Burton.

For further information on the CTR Placental Biology Course and Annual Meeting please visit our website or follow us on twitter @CTR_Cambridge