Marta Shahbazi

I felt dizzy, heartbroken and angry reading this. A must read article for anybody interested in women's health, pregnancy, and labour.

Beautiful!

Nanobody-based recombinant antivenom for cobra, mamba and rinkhals bites - Nature A recombinant antivenom composed of eight nanobodies provides broad protection against venom-induced lethality and dermonecrosis in mice challenged with venoms from cobras, mambas and rinkha...

Snake bites kill/debilitate 1000s of people annually in Sub-Saharan African. A new nanobody cocktail is shown to be highly effective against 17 of the most dangerous African snake species. Unlike other anti-venoms it also protects against venom-induced dermal necrosis🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A blastocyst-derived in vitro model of the human chorion The placenta supports the foetus by mediating nutrient and gas exchange, hormone production, and immune protection. Yet, human placental biology remains poorly understood due to limited in vitro model...

If you want to know more about his work, please check our recent preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

LMB prize winners with certificates in the Max Perutz Lecture Theatre with clapping audience

Congratulations to the 2025 recipients of the Perutz Student Prize and the Joan Steitz Postdoc Prize: Claudia De Miguel, @lucaschwarz.bsky.social, Tom Dendooven, Sofia Lövestam, Katerina Naydenva & Tomke Stürner.

Find out why they won here: www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/lmb-prizes-2...

#LMBNews 👏

LMB Prizes given to students, postdocs and staff - MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology To mark the end of the annual LMB Symposium, the 2025 Perutz Student Prize, Joan A. Steitz Postdoc Prize and Eileen Southgate Staff Prize were awarded.

I couldn’t be more proud of @lucaschwarz.bsky.social!! He has been awarded a Perutz Student prize for his work developing aneuploid models of the human placenta. www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/lmb-prizes-2...

Sir John Gurdon, 1933-2025 | Wellcome A Nobel-winning scientist of great modesty and humour, John Gurdon died on 7 October. He made a discovery that opened up the field of cloning research, and created one of the best environments for res...

A Nobel-winning scientist of great modesty and humour, John Gurdon died on 7 Oct. Not only did he make a discovery that laid the foundations for stem cell research, he also created one of the best environments for research at the Wellcome/CRUK Gurdon Institute wellcome.org/news/sir-joh...

Thank you LMB Postdocs #NPAW25

We are deeply grateful to the incredible postdocs in our labs, who’s creativity and dedication push the boundaries of research every day and who’s energy makes the LMB such a fun and inspiring place. The future of science is bright! Kelly Nguyen LMB Group Leader

Thank you to all the postdocs in our group, past and present. It is a privilege to work with such an excellent team of scientists. Benjamin Ryskeldi-Falcon LMB Group Leader

I am grateful to all the amazing postdocs in my lab. They are great scientists, colleagues, and mentors. Our research wouldn’t be possible without them! Marta Shahbazi LMB Group Leader

🎉 Happy Postdoc Appreciation Week! 🎉
As LMB Group Leaders @kellythd-nguyen.bsky.social, @brfalcon.bsky.social & @marta-shahbazi.bsky.social attest, our postdocs are at the heart of our research community and shape everything we do.
Thank you postdocs!
#PostdocAppreciationWeek #PAW25

I could not have summarised our article better than @katherine-brown.bsky.social!! Please see below and keep reading if you are interested in human embryo research policy. It was such a pleasure to write this piece with Susana, Mina and Catello.

If it’s time to revisit the 14-day rule, it’s also time to engage the public  - Nuffield Council on Bioethics Molly Gray, Public Engagement Manager at the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, introduces our upcoming public dialogue and discusses the importance of engaging the public in conversations around the 14-d...

"With debate growing around whether the “14-day rule” on human embryo research remains fit for purpose, the need for inclusive public dialogue is more important than ever".
www.nuffieldbioethics.org/news-blog/if...

A blastocyst-derived in vitro model of the human chorion The placenta supports the foetus by mediating nutrient and gas exchange, hormone production, and immune protection. Yet, human placental biology remains poorly understood due to limited in vitro model...

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🤩 Very excited to share our new work! We have derived euploid and aneuploid trophoblast organoids and extra-embryonic mesoderm cell lines from early human embryos. In doing so, we have characterised the tissue requirements for their specification. If you want to know more, continue reading….

Reviewing the 14-day rule for human embryo research - Nuffield Council on Bioethics Exploring arguments for and against extending the 14-day time limit for human embryo research.

This is why I am very excited to be part of a group that will oversee a public dialogue about rewriting the day 14 rule, organised by the ‪@nuffieldbioethics.bsky.social‬. You can read more about it here: www.nuffieldbioethics.org/project/revi...

I recently listened to a fantastic podcast on @radiolab.bsky.social about the lack of public engagement during the AIDS epidemic. Those affected felt unheard and abandoned. As scientists, we have a responsibility to engage with the public and hear their views.

Apical size reduction by macropinocytosis alleviates tissue crowding - Nature Communications This study reveals that epithelial cells can reduce their apical surface area via macropinocytosis to relieve tissue crowding, offering a reversible alternative to cell extrusion and highlighting a ne...

Very cool finding! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congratulations!!!

Scoop: Trump admin cuts contracts with scientific publishing giant The administration has questioned editorial practices and whether journals are partisans in scientific debates

It's not clear what this means. So Nature Springer journals, including Nature and Scientific American, won't be available at the NIH? Is the next step to prohibit NIH staff from publishing in Nature? And you know the Nazis cancelled Nature too, right?
www.axios.com/2025/06/25/t...

Fantastic news! Congratulations Kelly!

Beautiful!

Had so much fun the past few weeks playing around with human trophoblast stem cells and organoids in Cambridge! Thanks @marta-shahbazi.bsky.social for hosting me, @lucaschwarz.bsky.social for all his experimental wisdom, and everybody at @cellbiol-mrclmb.bsky.social for making me feel at home!

Has April Fool’s day been moved to May???

Enhorabuena!!!!

Luca Schwarz from @cellbiol-mrclmb.bsky.social
presented his blastocyst-derived trophoblast organoid as an in vitro model of human placenta to investigate ExMe (extraembryonic mesenchyme)

Congrats Silvia and all the team! Such a great achievement!

Busy day for our lab! If you want to know more about our placental organoid work don’t miss @lucaschwarz.bsky.social’s talk at @yen-network.bsky.social. Miguel, a postdoc from the lab, will talk about his PhD work at @cammorphoseries.bsky.social and I will present at @brisunipress.bsky.social

Post-gastrulation amnioids as a stem cell-derived model of human extra-embryonic development An embryonic stem cell-based 3D model that accurately recapitulates the size, morphology, and functional features of the human amnion at 4 weeks, termed the post-gastrulation amnioid (PGA), is develop...

Impressive work by @santoslab.bsky.social creating a 3D model of human amnion from hESCs! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

A room with a view #GRC

Working hard with @mllthingsdna.bsky.social @katemiro.bsky.social @ms01.bsky.social and @vrendo.bsky.social @embo.org #ChromoPloidy25

If you are interested in IVF and human reproduction, don't miss this event to celebrate Bob Edwards' centenary: www.tickettailor.com/events/churc...

A computational pipeline for spatial mechano-transcriptomics - Nature Methods The authors present a computational framework that leverages mechanical force inference and spatial transcriptomics to enable analyses of the interplay between the transcriptomic and mechanical state.

This is really cool! Linking transcriptomics and mechanics. www.nature.com/articles/s41...