Public Dialogues
We secured funding from the BBSRC Impact Acceleration fund, and coordinated with Sciencewise, Project Educational Trust and Cambridge Reproduction, to carry out a public dialogue with individuals with lived experience and wider members of public to understand views, hopes and concerns regarding stem cell based embryo models. Feedback from the pubic dialogue was incorporated into the first UK Code of Practice on stem cell based embryo models.
We contributed to multiple workshops and provided background information a Human Developmental Biology Initiative led public dialogue on extending the 14-day limit of embryo culture.
Education and training
Our lab developed a virtual Placental Biology Course that has since reached 587 international students from 64 countries (60% from outside UK and North America). We established bursaries awarded to over 200 students demonstrating widespread international need for training in the field.
We also provided training on human embryo and genome editing to UK secondary school teachers with support from the Prince’s Teaching Institute.
We have also participated in Primary school guest talks on early development across species.
We organize/participate in Cambridge Reproduction Summer School futures of reproduction.
Workshops, Citizens Juries, Festivals, Exhibitions
We inform the public on human embryo research, genome editing and stem cell models, for example through Royal Institution, BBC World Service, Royal College of Engineering, Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition, Cambridge Festival, Science Museum, Kavli Centre, Science Museum Lates, amongst numerous other activities.
In March 2025, we presented a poster at the Parliamentary & Scientific Committee’s STEM for Britain 2025 event, held at the Houses of Parliament.
In September 2022, we contributed as an expert speakers on genome editing for the UK Citizen’s Jury on Genome Editing, hosted by Wellcome Connecting Science. This Citizen’s Jury explored the benefits and risks of embryo genome editing for the application of curing genetic disease. I provided domain knowledge to 21 members of the public on genetics, heritability, genetic disease and genome editing to help them reach an informed perspective on the use of this technology.
As Co-Chair of Cambridge Reproduction, Kathy supports wider engagement on reproduction related topics such as reproductive rights, lactation, ectogenesis, menopause, fertility freezing, including supporting panel discussions, reading groups, film screenings, among others listed here.
Science media
Our research on human embryos, genome editing and the first cell fate decisions in humans attracted wide-spread public interest and was highlighted in the Lancet, Scientific America, BBC, Guardian, New York Times, NPR, Science news, Time, CNN, among numerous others internationally. The development of the UK Code of Practice also attracted wide-spread public interest. In addition, our contributions to collaborations on the development of a novel therapy to prevent the transmission of inherited mitochondrial diseases and methods to investigate early human post-implantation development in vitro also attracted broad public interest.
Ethics & Policy
UK Parliament House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee, European Commission Ethics Group, World Health Organisation, International Commission, among numerous other international government and policy teams, including in Germany, France, Norway, Japan and Singapore Ministries of Health– We were invited to give expert evidence and advice on national and international governance on human embryo research and genome editing.
ISSCR Guidelines Working Group – We were a member of the ISSCR guidelines working group to update the use of human embryos and stem cells in research. The document is used widely by international ethics committees.
Nuffield Council on Bioethics – We were involved in ethics and policy discussions on the use of genome editing and human embryo research (2016); member of the Embryo Models Working Group which was commissioned by the HFEA to produce a report for governance of this research (2024).
UK Code of Practice– We were awarded a BBSRC Impact Acceleration funded project bringing together scientists, legal scholars, bioethicists, major funders, and regulators to develop a governance framework for use of stem cell models of human embryos (2024). We subsequently secured further BBSRC funding to conduct a public dialogue to understand their hopes and fears, which reinforced the need for oversight. Altogether this led to the establishment of the first UK Code of Practice. The Code of Practice was developed in collaboration with Project Educational Trust and Cambridge Reproduction.
UK Parliament Office of Science and Technology POSTnote – We advised and reviewed briefing documents on human germline genome editing (2020) and on stem cell-based embryo models (2024).
UK Health Research Authority – We took part in training ethics committees to review genome editing applications.
Royal Society and National Academies of Science & Medicine – We presented International Genome Editing Summit (2018, 2023); and contributed to a human embryo models workshop convened by the national academies (2020).
Cambridge Centre for Science and Policy– We co-organised workshops on reproductive organoids and stem cell based embryo models for senior policy advisors, government agencies, legal experts and leading scientists (2022) and contributed to a discussion on genome editing (2021).
Niakan lab 