University of Nottingham: Dr Derfogail Delcassian · UK Regenerative Medicine Platform

Professor Kevin Shakesheff, University of Nottingham
Director

Prof Molly Stevens, Imperial College London
Director

Molly Stevens is Professor of Biomedical Materials and Regenerative Medicine and the Research Director for Biomedical Material Sciences in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College. She graduated from Bath University and was awarded a PhD from the University of Nottingham in 2001. Molly conducted post-doctoral studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ahead of joining Imperial in 2004.

Molly’s research uses transformative bioengineering approaches to overcome severe limitations in current materials in biosensing and regenerative medicine. A key focus is on understanding and engineering the biomaterial interface using innovative designs and state of the art materials characterisation methods and using highly multidisciplinary approaches from bioengineers, material scientists, chemists, surgeons and biologists.

Derfogail is currently an EPSRC E-TERM Landscape Fellow based jointly between the University of Nottingham and MIT. Her research focuses on designing immunomodulatory biomaterials, which she uses to direct adaptive and innate immune cell behaviour in a range of applications. Her current focus is on designing immunomodulation therapies for chronic auto-immune disorders, cancer and modification of the transplant niche. Within tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, she focuses on using materials to provide specific soluble, physical and nano-scale cues to immune cells, in order to direct their activation and differentiation in vivo.

Previously, Derfogail completed her undergraduate MChem degree at the University of York, before working in industry as a Research and Development Chemist with GSK. She then studied for her PhD at Imperial College London under the supervision of Dr. Iain Dunlop and Prof. Molly Stevens, before undertaking an EPSRC Post-Doctoral Prize Fellowship at Imperial. In addition to her Fellowships, Derfogail has won several national and international grants and prizes (Biomaterials Gordon Research Conference Prize 2015, Materials Research Symposium Prize 2014) and has submitted patent applications based on her research. Within her current Fellowship, Derfogail is collaborating with both the Acellular and Immunomodulatory Hubs to design new immunomodulatory materials for TERM therapies.