Events and Open Days
Open Days
We run open days for our undergraduate courses and our graduate-entry Medicine (MB ChB) programme several times per year., usually in June and October. We'll update this page when the 2026 dates have been confirmed.
Leading Lights Lectures
Our Leading Lights lectures give our new professors the opportunity to share their career journey and current work with their colleagues, friends, and family, as well as members of the public with an interest in their area of research. These events are open to all. See our upcoming lectures here and watch the recordings of our previous lectures here.
CMCB Lab Talk - McAinsh lab
Cellular Interfaces Seminar: Mechanical Principles of Centrosome Assembly and Function, Dr Isaac Wong, University of Oxford
BMS Seminar: Understanding the in vivo dynamics of distinct muscle stem cells systems during growth and regeneration and their different niches across the vertebrate phylogeny, Professor Peter Currie, Monash University
BMS Seminar: Common allele and yet a large effect? Professor Mihaela Pavlicev, Department of Evolutionary Biology, University of Vienna
Abstract: In this talk, I would like to discuss our work exploring the effects of a mutation at the Wnt4 locus. This common human SNP has been repeatedly associated with antagonistic pleiotropic effects on pregnancy length and endometriosis, among other reproductive phenotypes. We showed previously that the minor allele is known to generate a novel perfect binding site for estrogen receptor alpha. Using transgenic mouse lines with this mutation, we showed that it causes upregulation of Wnt4 expression in mouse endometrial stromal cells following the preovulatory estrogen peak. Notably, the pregnancy length in these mice is not affected. However, together with upregulation of Wnt4 in mutants, we see a series of phenotypes that suggest an effect on implantation, and appear at odds with previous findings that endometriosis is associated with diminished progesterone response. I will discuss the published work, as well as some of the more recent findings.
Biography: Mihaela Pavlicev is Professor for Theoretical Evolutionary Biology at the University of Vienna. Her studies led her from a PhD in Ecology at the University of Vienna, over postdoctoral positions in Evolutionary Quantitative Genetics in St. Louis (USA) and Oslo (Norway), to a research professorship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Research Center in 2013. During the latter, her work increasingly focused on the genetic basis of mammalian reproductive traits, among which pregnancy length featured strongly. In 2019, Pavlicev returned to Vienna to take on her current position. In her research, she addresses the genetic bases and the evolution of reproductive traits.