You are kindly invited to the Meet the jury lecture of prof. Jan Brosens (Warwick medical School, University of Warwick, UK) on ‘ The endometrial decidual reaction: from cell biology to miscarriage prevention‘.
Date: 22 October 2025, 13h-14h
Venue: Auditorium BMW 4 (04.212), Campus Gasthuisberg ON2
Livestream link
About the lecture
Human pregnancy depends on interstitial implantation of a genetically diverse embryo in a newly regenerated endometrium. A pivotal event in each conception cycle is the midluteal decidual reaction. This sterile inflammatory tissue response leads to the time-sensitive loss of subluminal DIO2+ stromal cells, which form a specialised implantation niche, and the reciprocal expansion of underlying PLA2G2A+ predecidual cells, essential for a robust uteroplacental interface in pregnancy. Simultaneously, uterine natural killer (uNK) cell proliferation results in the accumulation of immunotolerant subsets. The decidual reaction is disrupted by soluble signals from low-fitness human embryos, underscoring its crucial role in preventing maternal investment in a failing pregnancy. Further, examination of endometrial biopsies from 924 women revealed that the age-independent miscarriage risk closely aligns with the incidence of a weakened or stalled decidual reaction, more so than poor uNK cell expansion. Analysis of paired biopsies obtained in different cycles and modelling in assembloids intimated that prior miscarriages disrupt intercycle endometrial homeostasis and calibration of the decidual reaction. Our findings not only show that erosion of the decidual reaction following a miscarriage drives the recurrence risk irrespective of maternal age but also lay the foundation for novel endometrial diagnostics and therapeutics.
About the speaker
Jan Brosens graduated from KU Leuven, Belgium, in 1990 and pursued postgraduate training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the United Kingdom. He became a Member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1995 and a Fellow in 2008. He obtained a Ph.D. from the University of London in 1999. He was awarded a Wellcome Trust Clinical Scientist Fellowship in 1998 and became a Wellcome Trust Investigator in 2018. He joined Imperial College London, first as Chair of Reproductive Sciences (2004) and then as Chair of Reproductive Medicine (2008). Currently, Jan Brosens is Professor of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at the University of Warwick and is the Scientific Director of Tommy’s National Miscarriage Research Centre, a partnership between Imperial College London, University of Birmingham, University of Warwick and their affiliated NHS hospitals.
More info: ellen<dot>depauw<at>kuleuven<dot>be
