Research at Keele Discovering Excellence | Page 18

Discovering Excellence | Tissue Engineering

Tissue Engineering
Professor Alicia El Haj
Pioneering Keele research engineers offer hope for millions
Helping to address some of the world’s most common health issues, innovations
in stem cell therapy at Keele University are offering global solutions for bone tissue
growth and repair
Advanced research and innovation
is behind the pioneering work of
Professor Alicia El Haj as a new
field of medicine – cell therapy
– becomes a reality. It is being
utilised to assist osteoarthritis and
osteoporosis sufferers, as well
as tackle heart disease, multiple
sclerosis and dementia. Now the
research work of Professor El Haj
and her team of ‘tissue engineers’
at Keele University is striving to
uncover cell therapy techniques
that can regenerate major tissue
and grow organs – potentially
removing the need for challenging
reconstructive surgery and
minimising the risk, cost and trauma
associated with the transplant of
donor organs.
Cell therapy development has been
rapid over the past 15 years, with
work in the USA, which isolated
human embryonic stem cells,
signalling the unlimited potential
of tissue rejuvenation. Currently,
stem cells are being used to
treat many conditions and it is a
collaborative research effort that
has taken the subject area forward
with universities such as Keele,
Nottingham and Loughborough
working together to create major
centres of regenerative medicine
expertise and develop commercially
sound practices and processes.
Central to the developments in
cell therapy and tissue engineering
has been the pioneering research
programmes at Keele under the
strategic leadership by Professor
El Haj. As founding Director
for the Institute of Science and
Technology in Medicine at Keele
University, under her guidance

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many hundreds of osteoarthritis
sufferers have already benefited
from cutting-edge cell therapy
techniques to treat what is the
most common form of joint
disease. The basis of the treatment
under the clinical leadership of
Professor James Richardson,
Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery
at Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt
Orthopaedic Hospital in Oswestry,
involves taking cartilage cells
from a patient’s healthy knee and
culturing them in a laboratory over
the course of a number of weeks
to grow new knee tissue. The new
tissue is then implanted in the
damaged joint to replace damaged
or worn cartilage. Current activity
sees research into the possibilities
of mixing cartilage cells with bone
marrow stem cells to investigate
whether a combination of the two
is even more effective.

Steps forward
Looking beyond simple bone or
joint repair, Professor El Haj’s
techniques have been identified
as a route forward to repairing
tissue damage on other parts of
the body also, and helping to open
up opportunities for innovative
treatments. Such opp