Liver Tissue Development and Engineering The liver plays a vital role in human health, including the detoxification of foreign substances. We use stem cells to grow liver tissue in the laboratory. The stem cells we use are called human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells. The attraction of using these cell populations is their indefinite growth in the lab and their ability to form all the cells found in the human body. We have developed reliable methods for building human liver tissue. Encouragingly, it behaves in a similar way to the liver found in the human body. We believe our liver tissue has an important part to play in improving human drug development and repurposing; modelling human disease and in the future may provide an alternative source of human tissue to treat failing human liver function. Professor David Hay Group Leader Contact details Website: Personal Profile Work: 0131 651 9500 Email: david.hay@ed.ac.uk Aims and areas of interest Image Professor Dave Hay and his research group HTML Our aims are: To develop informative human liver models produced from pluripotent stem cells To develop implantable human liver tissue derived from pluripotent stem cells To develop synthetic and natural materials for tissue engineering purposes Professor Hay recently wrote an article on careers in science for Futurum Careers. In the news The Naked Scientist - Artificial liver progress. 05 Aug 20 The Naked Scientist - The Future of artificial livers, 20 Aug 20 Growing human liver cells "in a dish" FT article, Nov 19 The Naked Scientist Podcast, 26 Nov 19 Scottish Dail Mail - Liver transplant article, 28 Aug 18 Futurum Careers article FT article, 2018 Stem Cell Innovators Group Members Victoria Gadd (Postdoc) Sharmin Alhaque (PhD Student shared with Brunel University) Dewi Jones (PhD Student) Alvile Kasarinaite (PhD Student) Angus Marks (PhD Student shared with Chemistry) Matthew Sinton (PhD Student shared with BHF CVR) Gregor Skeldon (PhD Student shared with Strathclyde University) Mojca Zelnikar (Research Assistant) Funders MRC UKRMP Innovate UK Astellas Institute for Regenerative Medicine Novo Nordisk Collaborators We work collaboratively with a number of groups in Edinburgh: Stuart Forbes, Mark Bradley, Anthony Callanan, Mandy Drake, Colin Campbell, Carsten Hansen, Anura Rambukana and Bruno Peault We collaborate with other researchers in the UK and overseas: Fiona Watt, Anil Dhawan, and Giovanna Lombardi, King’s College London Jan Hengstler, University of Dortmund Lijian Hui, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences Ron Hay, University of Dundee Cliona O’Farrelly, Trinity College Dublin Jo Mountford, University of Glasgow Michael Themis, Brunel University Will Shu, Strathclyde University Our industry partners include: Ruchi Sharma, Stemnovate Kristian Tryggvason, Biolamina Dominic Williams, Astra Zeneca Charis Segeritz-Walko – StemCell Technologies Image Stem cell derived liver spheres express a protein, zona occludens 1, important in organising liver cells Image Spheres of stem cell-derived liver cells (orange) placed on the scaffold. Credit: H Rashidi 2018. This article was published on 2024-02-26
