MOLLY STEVENS
BIOGRAPHY
Professor Molly M Stevens FREng FRS is Professor of Biomedical Materials and Regenerative Medicine and the Research Director for Biomedical Material Sciences in the Department of Materials, in the Department of Bioengineering and the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London. Professor Stevens’ multidisciplinary research balances the investigation of fundamental science with the development of technology to address some of the major healthcare challenges.
Her work has been instrumental in elucidating the bio-material interfaces. She has created a broad portfolio of designer biomaterials for applications in disease diagnostics and regenerative medicine. Her substantial body of work influences research groups around the world with over 30 major awards for the groups research and Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher in Cross-Field research.
TOPIC: ‘USING BIOENGINEERING APPROACHES TO ENGINEER TISSUES’
Bio-responsive hybrid materials are of growing importance with potential applications including therapeutic delivery and tissue engineering. I will provide an overview of our recent developments in the design of biointerfaces with interesting features such as the incorporation of biological and topographical cues to enhance tissue regeneration, wound healing and cell differentiation [1].
I will show how we are using remote fields and advanced manufacturing strategies to engineer complex 3D architectures that mimic anisotropic multiscale tissue structures and to generate spatially arranged bioinstructive biochemical and topographical cues [2]. I will discuss the multi-scale approach that we use to inform the design of smart biomaterials - from molecular dynamics simulation that help us understand self-assembly and organisation at the nanoscale [3], to material characterisation techniques used to visualise the molecular composition of living tissues [4].
Finally, I will discuss how we are establishing effective translational pipelines to drive our innovations to clinical application [5].
References:
[1] T. von Erlach, … M. M. Stevens. “Cell geometry dependent changes in plasma membrane order direct stem cell signalling and fate.” Nature Materials. 2018. 17: 237-242.
[2] L. Ouyang, … M. M. Stevens. “Expanding and optimizing 3D bioprinting capabilities using complementary network bioinks.” Science Advances. 2020. 6(38): eabc5529.
[3] A. Belessiotis-Richards, … M. M. Stevens. “Coarse grained simulations suggest the epsin N-terminal homology domain can sense membrane curvature without its terminal amphipathic helix.” ACS Nano. 2020. 14(12):16919-16928.
[4] H. Hogset… M. M. Stevens. “In vivo biomolecular imaging of zebrafish embryos using confocal Raman spectroscopy.” Nature Communications. 2020. 11:6172.
[5] J. P. K. Armstrong… M. M. Stevens. “A blueprint for translational regenerative medicine.” Science Translational Medicine. 2020. 12(572): eaaz2253.