BoR Winners Webinar Series

Speaker Bio:
Dr Amanda Sferruzzi-Perri is a Professor of Fetal and Placental Physiology in the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, at the University of Cambridge. Her research is focused on unravelling the environmental and genetic regulation of the placenta and closely related to this, the in utero programming of adult diseases. Her work combines novel genetic tools and environmental manipulations, with in vivo functional assays and cellular, metabolic, histological, and molecular techniques in vitro. Amanda completed her PhD at the University of Adelaide, Australia in 2007. Through an NHMRC Overseas Biomedical Research Fellowship, Amanda then moved to Cambridge, UK in 2008. Facilitated by the award of two consecutive research fellowships (Centre for Trophoblast Research and Royal Society), and then her permanent Lecturer position in 2019, Amanda continued to build her research programme at the University of Cambridge. Over the years, Amanda has received several Honours for her work, including the Hans Sigrist Research Prize in 2020, Lister Institute of Preventative Medicine Research Prize in 2018, and the Society for Reproduction and Fertility Young Investigator Award and Andrée Gruslin award from the International Federation of Placenta Associations in 2017. Amanda is regularly invited to speak at conferences and has published >85 scientific papers. She is passionate about mentoring and fostering the development of others and is heavily involved in scientific communication and outreach, in part facilitated by her involvement in societies like SRF (Society for Reproduction and Fertility).

Webinar Description:
The placenta is essential for mammalian development and a key determinant of life-long offspring health. It is responsible for transporting all the nutrients and oxygen a fetus needs to develop and grow and secretes hormones that adapt maternal physiology to support the pregnancy. However, the placenta is not a static organ. In this talk I will present our work undertaken in experimental models showing that placental formation and function adapts developmentally to the needs of the growing fetus during normal gestation, as well as in response to suboptimal gestational environments, namely obesity and hypoxia. Impairments in placental formation and function have consequences for fetal growth and birthweight, which in turn, dictate perinatal survival and risk of non-communicable diseases in later postnatal life. Thus, identifying how the placenta responds and adapts to developmental and environmental cues may be informative for the design of strategies to optimise pregnancy and long-term health outcomes.