The engineering behind a healthcare revolution

It’s the mysterious vanguard of medical research, an emerging field of cell-based science that could hold the key to curing everything from blindness to diabetes.

Regenerative medicine yields headlines that focus on the high-profile research of biologists. But a new breed of UK engineers are adapting a traditional systems approach to help make its incredible potential a reality.

’Most people think regenerative medicine is all about stem cells – they think it’s in the domain of life science,’ said Prof John Fisher of Leeds University. ’But of course when you come to think about approaches to regeneration, then that opens up a whole range of activities for engineers.’

Fisher is well-placed to understand the role engineers could play in cell-based therapies. As co-founder of Leeds University spin-out, Tissue Regenix, his expertise has been crucial in developing biological scaffolds that can be used as a compatible donor tissue for stem-cell applications.