Cambridge scientist Marta Shahbazi mourned after fatal train collision in Spain
Original report:
Colleagues have paid tribute to developmental biologist Marta Shahbazi, who died while travelling to a conference in Spain to receive a scientific excellence award. Her Cambridge laboratory highlighted her research into early human embryo development and pregnancy failure.
Dr Marta Shahbazi, 41, a Cambridge researcher, was among those killed in a train collision near Urda in Spain’s Toledo province, the Guardian reported. The crash killed at least 69 people. Shahbazi was travelling to a conference in El Rompido, Andalucía, where she was due to receive the Spanish Society of Developmental Biology’s scientific excellence prize.
An affiliate associate professor at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and group leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Shahbazi was remembered by colleagues for her scientific contributions and support for others. The laboratory described her death as a major loss. Spain observed three days of national mourning, and prime minister Pedro Sánchez promised an investigation.
The laboratory said Shahbazi’s research examined the earliest stages of human embryo development and errors associated with failed pregnancies. Her collaborator Roser Vento-Tormo said they jointly supervised two students and had work awaiting publication. Those tributes describe a loss extending across research partnerships, student supervision and the developmental biology community.
Source
the Guardian — 1 November 2026
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