The Safety Hub will, for the first time, provide a clear framework for the most appropriate label and imaging technology to use for robust safety assessment of Regenerative Medicine Therapies. The benefits will be felt by beneficiaries involved in the development of novel Regenerative Medicine Therapies that will ultimately lead to acceleration of these therapies into a clinical setting.
We will develop methods to monitor the biodistribution and behaviour of transplanted cells in well-characterised disease models using innovative nanochemistry and molecular imaging, and will thus relate the disposition of administered cells to the physiological, pharmacological and pathological responses of the host tissues that the cells populate. As examplar of therapies with long-term stem/progenitor cell engraftment, we will focus on kidney and liver models of chronic injury and monitor transplanted cells over the long-term (months). Liver disease is also a target for macrophage-based Regenerative Medicine Therapy, where injury is ameliorated by stimulating endogenous repair; this therapy, pioneered at University of Edinburgh, is likely to progress to a ‘first in man study’ and the non-invasive MRI cell tracking methodology developed by our Hub will considerably facilitate this. We will identify and develop the most appropriate nanoprobe/imaging combinations, which will be translatable to other Regenerative Medicine Therapies through interaction with the UKRMP consortium.
Our core team is composed of chemists, pharmacologists, imaging experts, stem cell biologists and clinicians from University of Liverpool, UCL, University of Manchester, and University of Edinburgh.
Director: Professor Kevin Park, University of Liverpool
Deputy Director: Professor Matthew Rosseinsky, University of Liverpool
Hub Leads:
- University of Manchester: Professor Steve Williams
- UCL: Professor Mark Lythgoe
- University of Edinburgh: Professor Stuart Forbes
Our researchers:
- University of Liverpool: Dr Mike Barrow, Dr Jack Sharkey, Dr Marie Held and Dr Joan Comenge
- UCL: Dr Stephen Patrick and Dr John Connell
- University of Manchester: Dr Ioannis Bantounas, Dr Inna Linnik, Dr Parisa Ranjzad and Dr Dhifaf Jasim
- University of Edinburgh: Dr Philip Starkey Lewis
