Department of Hepatology

About us

The University of Edinburgh Hepatology departmental website. Keeping you up to date with publications, staff, student opportunities and current research areas.

Academic Profile

The laboratory is steadily expanding with over £1m research funding recently generated (2012-2018) - and has close links with other University Centres including: The MRC Centre of Inflammation Research, Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine, Materials Science Institute (Engineering), MRC Technology; and SynthSys (Synthetic & Systems Biology Institute).

The laboratory has established strong collaborations with several European Centres of Excellence including The University of Amsterdam and University of Rennes in the development of a bioartificial liver (BAL) support system, through a recent €6m EU FP7-HEALTH Grant [BALANCE: 2012-15]. The consortium includes several Biotech SMEs: Pharmacel, Cyprio - Spheroid Revolusion, HepART and BioPredic.

Over the years the Hepatology laboratory has accepted several postgraduate students to work towards a MD or PhD, a number of fellows from abroad and approximately 38 honours Physiology and Pharmacology students who have worked on research projects for their dissertation.

Over the last 10 years the staff of the laboratory has contributed over 27 articles to accredited and high impact factor hepatology and scientific journals and regularly presents work to BASL, EASL, TERMIS, IBCA and AASLD meetings

 

Research Profile

Over the last 5 years we have concentrated in the development of an in vitro model of hepatic steatosis aiming to understand the biochemical changes related to fat loading of the hepatocyte at cellular level. Such understanding is fundamental to study the interactions between the hepatocyte and other cells and may contribute further to the understanding of the pathophysiology of non- alcoholic fatty liver disease. The Laboratory has special expertise in techniques for nutrient overload of specific hepatocyte lines such as the C3A and HepaRG lines. A number of novel approaches such as poly-omics technology are currently been used.

The Laboratory has also significant experience in the use of novel 3D culture systems such as the RCCS microgravity bioreactor and the Moretti culture system. One of the main research interests is the development of tissue constructs (hepatic organoids) for metabolic studies and drug development. 3D co-cultures between endothelial cells and the HepaRG cell line are under development.

The Hepatology laboratory benefits from the close links with the Scottish Liver Transplant Unit where patients with acute liver failure are regularly treated. One our main missions is to contribute to the development of an effective biortificial liver support system for the treatment of acute liver failure. Over the years we have established strong collaborations with other National and European Centres to work together towards this aim, funded by an FP7 EU program Grant.

 

 

The Department of Hepatology is situated in the University of Edinburgh, Chancellor's Building at 49 Little France Crescent.

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