Professor Alicia El Haj BSc, MSc, PhD, FREng, FRSB, FEAMBES

School of Chemical Engineering
Interdisciplinary Chair of Cell Engineering

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0) 121 371 7698
Email: a.elhaj@bham.ac.uk

Address: Healthcare Technology Institute
Institute of Translational Medicine
3rd Floor, Heritage Building
Mindelsohn Way
Birmingham
B15 2TH

Alicia El Haj is the Interdisciplinary Professor of Cell Engineering at the Healthcare Technologies Institute at the Institute of Translational Medicine, University of Birmingham.

She is a leading figure in Bioengineering and Regenerative Medicine and has been involved in bringing together interdisciplinary groups within biomedicine, physical sciences and engineering, interested in aspects of cell and tissue engineering and regenerative medicine to move innovative new cell based therapies to the clinic. She has published over 200 publications in developing novel tissue engineering approaches using biomechanics, bioreactors, and imaging systems for the delivery of cell therapies to the clinic with funding from EPSRC, MRC, BBSRC, Versus Arthritis and ERC Advanced Grant

Alicia actively engages in public events having presented ‘Remote Control Healing’ at the Café Scientifique in Royal Society London and at the ‘Next Big Thing’ at the Hay Festival 2017.

Qualifications

Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology
Fellow of the European Alliance for Medical and Biological Engineering and Science

Biography

Growing Bones - The Edge

Bone Cells - Alicia El Haj

2015 ACHLR – ESRC – Liability and Innovation The Defensive Medicine Debate Alicia El Haj

Professor Alicia El Haj, FREng, FRSB, FEAMBES, Interdisciplinary Professor of Cell Engineering, joined the Healthcare Technology Institute in the Institute of Translational Medicine at Birmingham University, UK in September 2018. Previously, she has been the founding Director of the Institute of Science & Technology in Medicine at Keele University Medical School. She is a leading figure in Bioengineering and Regenerative Medicine and has been involved in bringing together interdisciplinary groups within biomedicine, physical sciences and engineering interested in aspects of cell and tissue engineering and regenerative medicine to move innovative new cell based therapies to the clinic. She has published over a 200 publications in novel tissue engineering approaches such as biomechanics, bioreactors, and imaging systems for the delivery of cell therapies to the clinic with funding from EPSRC, MRC, BBSRC, AR UK and an ERC Advanced Award in 2018. She is also Director of a spin out company MICA Biosystems , Ltd involved in translating innovative in vitro pharma screening tools and stem cell control systems into clinical use.

She is Deputy Director of the MRC UKRMP Regen Med Hub and a partner in ARUK Centre in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine as well as multiple EU programmes. She has been a Research Director of an EPSRC Doctoral Training Centre in Regenerative Medicine, and a co-director of the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing Centre in Regenerative Medicine. Prof. El Haj is ex-Chair of the European Council for the Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS).She was awarded with a Royal Society Merit Award in 2014 and is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK. In March 2015, she was awarded the MRC Suffrage Award for her role in leading women in STEM. Alicia actively engages in public events having presented ‘Remote Control Healing’ at the Café Scientifique in Royal Society London and at the ‘Next Big Thing’ at the Hay Festival 2017.

Other activities

Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology
Fellow of the European Alliance for Medical and Biological Engineering and Science
Founding member of the UK Tissue and Cell Engineering Society and President from 2003-2008
Deputy Director of the MRC UKRMP Regen Med Hub
Co-director of the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing Centre in Regenerative Medicine
President of the UK Bioengineering Society

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Price, JC, Krause, A, Waters, SL & El Haj, A 2020, 'Predicting bone formation in MSC seeded hydrogels using experiment based mathematical modelling', Tissue Engineering - Part A. https://doi.org/10.1089/ten.TEA.2020.0027

Monaco, G, El Haj, A, Alini, M & Stoddart, MJ 2020, 'Sodium hyaluronate supplemented culture media as a new hMSC chondrogenic differentiation media-model for in vitro/ex vivo screening of potential cartilage repair therapies', Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, vol. 8, 243, pp. 1-16. https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2020.00243

El Haj, A, Dimmock, R, Wang, X, Fu, Y & Yang, Y 2019, 'Biomedical Applications of Wrinkling Polymers', Recent Progress in Materials .

El Haj, A, Markides, H, Newell, KJ, Rudorf, H, Blokpoel Ferraras, L, Morris, RH, Graves, M, Kaggie, J & Henson, F 2019, 'Ex vivo MRI cell tracking of autologous mesenchymal stromal cells in an ovine osteochondral defect model', Stem cell research & therapy, vol. 10, no. 1, 25. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13287-018-1123-7

El Haj, A, Rose, JB, Sidney, LE, Patient, J, White, LJ, Dua, HS, Hopkinson, A & Rose, FRAJ 2019, 'In vitro evaluation of electrospun blends of gelatin and PCL for application as a partial thickness corneal graft', Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A, vol. 107, no. 4, pp. 828-838. https://doi.org/10.1002/jbm.a.36598

El Haj, A, Gater, R, Ipek, T, Sadiq, S, Nguyen, D, Jones, L & Yang, Y 2019, 'Investigation of Conjunctival Fibrosis Response Using a 3D Glaucoma Tenon's Capsule+ Conjunctival Model', Investigative Opthalmology & Visual Science, vol. 60, no. 2, pp. 605-614. https://doi.org/10.1167/iovs.18-25335

El Haj, A, Deegan, AJ, Hendrikson, WJ, Rouwkema, J & Yang, Y 2019, 'Regulation of endothelial cell arrangements within hMSC - HUVEC co-cultured aggregates.', Biomed J.

Harrison, R, Lugo Leija, HA, Strohbuecker, S, Crutchley, J, Marsh, S, Denning, C, El Haj, A & Sottile, V 2018, 'Development and validation of broad-spectrum magnetic particle labelling processes for cell therapy manufacturing', Stem cell research & therapy, vol. 9, no. 1, 248. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13287-018-0968-0

Helling, A, Viswanathan, P, Cheliotis, K, Mobasseri, SA, Yang, Y, El Haj, AJ & Watt, FM 2018, 'Dynamic culture substrates that mimic the topography of the epidermal-dermal junction', Tissue Engineering Part A. https://doi.org/10.1089/ten.TEA.2018.0125

Reinwald, Y & El Haj, AJ 2018, 'Hydrostatic pressure in combination with topographical cues affects the fate of bone marrow-derived human mesenchymal stem cells for bone tissue regeneration', Journal of Biomedical Materials Research - Part A, vol. 106, no. 3, pp. 629-640. https://doi.org/10.1002/jbm.a.36267

Wall, M, Butler, D, El Haj, A, Bodle, JC, Loboa, EG & Banes, AJ 2018, 'Key developments that impacted the field of mechanobiology and mechanotransduction', Journal of Orthopaedic Research, vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 605-619. https://doi.org/10.1002/jor.23707

Henstock, JR, Rotherham, M & El Haj, AJ 2018, 'Magnetic ion channel activation of TREK1 in human mesenchymal stem cells using nanoparticles promotes osteogenesis in surrounding cells', Journal of Tissue Engineering, vol. 9. https://doi.org/10.1177/2041731418808695

Conference contribution

Mason, JH, Reinwald, Y, Yang, Y, Waters, SL, El Haj, A & Bagnaninchi, PO 2019, Model-based iterative reconstruction for spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. in TG Brown & T Wilson (eds), Three-Dimensional and Multidimensional Microscopy: Image Acquisition and Processing XXVI. vol. 10883, 108830O, Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE, vol. 10883, Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers, SPIE BiOS, United States, 5/02/19. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2509424

El Haj, A, Gillies, D, Gamal, W, Canel, M, Reinwald, Y, Yang, Y, Serrels, A & Bagnaninchi, PO 2019, Real-time and non-invasive quantitative phase imaging of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cell mechanical properties. in G Scarcelli & KV Larin (eds), Optical Elastography and Tissue Biomechanics VI. vol. 10880, 108800H, Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2508436

Mason, JH, Reinwald, Y, Yang, Y, Waters, SL, El Haj, A & Bagnaninchi, PO 2019, Simultaneous reconstruction and displacement estimation for spectral-domain optical coherence elastography. in G Scarcelli & KV Larin (eds), Optical Elastography and Tissue Biomechanics VI., 108801K, Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE, vol. 10880, Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2508326

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