Professor Ivan Wall PhD, MBA, FRSB, AFIChemE, FCMI, SFHEA

Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy
Professor in Regenerative Medicine

Contact details

Email: i.wall.1@bham.ac.uk

Professor Ivan Wall is an interdisciplinary scientist who works at the interface of cell biology, bioprocess engineering and digital technology. His research group works on stem cells and extracellular vesicles, with emphasis on industrial translation and scale up production.

At University of Birmingham, where he has a part-time appointment, he is the Director of the National Training Centre for Advanced Therapies Manufacturing. His ambition is to see Birmingham become a hub manufacturing cell and gene therapies that local patients can benefit from.

Most of Ivan's time is spent outside of the University building local businesses. Some of his avticities involve:

Co-Founder and Director of FourPlus Immersive, who make virtual reality training simulations for medicines manufacturers and educational institutions. This is critical to accelerate workforce growth as new medicines such as gene therapies, cellular therapies and vaccines become increasingly adopted in healthcare.
Co-Founder and CEO of Quest Meat, who are driving a food revolution through cellular agriculture to make meat using sustainable, cruelty-free methods. This is critical for ensuring food production meets the needs of a rapidly increasing global population with less impact on climate change than current industrial farming.

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Qualifications

Professor in Regenerative Medicine:

MBA 2021
Level 7 Senior Leaders Apprenticeship 2021
PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology 2007
MPhil in Cell Biology 2003
BSc (Hons) in Anatomical Science 2000
Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology
Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute
Associate Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers

Biography

Ivan obtained his PhD in cell and molecular biology, studying cellular mechanisms of wound healing. This led to an interest in tissue repair and regeneration and the role of stem cells in regenerative processes. His early post-doctoral studies examined implant materials and stem cell-mediated regeneration in dental tissues and he subsequently worked on the molecular mechanisms linking angiogenesis with neurogenesis in the developing hindbrain.

In 2009, Ivan became a lecturer in the Department of Biochemical Engineering at UCL working in the area of regenerative medicine bioprocessing. This was a period of transition, learning to understand process engineering terminology and gaining appreciation of the importance of being able to translate lab science from petri dish to industrial unit operations. His team at UCL grew to undertake research across stem cell biology, bioprocessing, biomaterials and microfluidics. He was promoted to senior lecturer in 2014, and then reader in 2017. He was a visiting professor at Dankook University in South Korea (2010-2018).

In 2018 Ivan moved to Aston University to take up a post as Professor in Cell and Gene Therapy Bioprocessing. He was the Aston lead for a new EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (with Universities of Glasgow and Birmingham) that aims to produce new therapies and drug models that reduce or eliminate the use of animals. He also supported a number of local and national skills initiatives including the establishment of a Level 7 Research Scientist (MRes) Apprenticeship.

In 2020, Ivan co-founded a start-up called FourPlus, who are creating virtual reality experiences for students and employees in the bioindustries, including medicines manufacturers. Training packages include GMP competencies and training in laboratory techniques and bioprocessing.

In 2021, Ivan co-founded another start-up, Quest Meat, who are creating cultivated meat products, where he is now the CEO.

In May 2022, Ivan came to the University of Birmingham in a part-time capacity as Professor of Regenerative Medicine.

Teaching

Ivan is the Director of the National Training Centre for Advanced Therapies Manufacturing. In this role, he creates and teaches on short courses to MSc/PhD students and external employees working in the advanced therapies (cell, gene and tissue therapies) industry.

Postgraduate supervision

Ivan supervises PhD students working on stem cell culture processes and exosome production.

Research

Research interests

Exosomes and extracellular vesicles
Cultivated meat and cellular agriculture
Stem cell scale up and analytics
MSC activation and functional enhancement

Publications

Hanga MP, de la Raga FA, Moutsatsou P, Hewitt CJ, Nienow AW, Wall I. (2021). Scale-up of an intensified bioprocess for the expansion of bovine adipose-derived stem cells (bASCs) in stirred tank bioreactors. Biotechnol Bioeng 118(8):3175-3186.

Peticone C, De Silva Thompson D, Dimov N, Jevans B, Glass N, Micheletti M, Knowles JC, Kim HW, Cooper-White JJ, Wall IB. (2020). Characterisation of osteogenic and vascular responses of hMSCs to Ti-Co doped phosphate glass microspheres using a microfluidic perfusion platform. J Tissue Eng accepted and in press

Valinhas A, Santiago-Toledo G, Wall IB. (2021). Microcarrier expansion of c-MycER^TAM -modified human olfactory mucosa cells for neural regeneration. Biotechnol Bioeng doi: 10.1002/bit.27573. Online ahead of print

Hanga MP, Ali J, Moutsatsou P, de la Raga FA, Hewitt CJ, Nienow A, Wall I. (2020). Bioprocess development for scalable production of cultivated meat. Biotechnol Bioeng. doi: 10.1002/bit.27469. Online ahead of print.

Wood R, Durali P, Wall I. (2020). Impact of Dual Cell Co-culture and Cell-conditioned Media on Yield and Function of a Human Olfactory Cell Line for Regenerative Medicine. Bioengineering 7(2). pii: E37.

Santiago-Toledo G, Georgiou M, Dos Reis J, Roberton VH, Valinhas A, Wood RC, Phillips JB, Mason C, Li D, Li Y, Sinden JD, Choi D, Jat PS, Wall IB. (2019). Generation of c-MycER^TAM-transduced human late-adherent olfactory mucosa cells for potential regenerative applications. Scientific Reports 9(1):13190.

Burova I, Peticone C, De Silva Thompson D, Knowles JC, Wall I, Shipley RJ. (2019). A parameterised mathematical model to elucidate osteoblast cell growth in a phosphate-glass microcarrier culture. J Tissue Eng 10:2041731419830264

Burova I, Wall I, Shipley RJ. (2019). Mathematical and computational models for bone tissue engineering in bioreactor systems. J Tissue Eng 10:2041731419827922

De Silva Thompson D, Peticone C, Burova I, Shipley RJ, Knowles JC, Kim HW, Micheletti M, Wall IB. (2019). Assessing behaviour of osteoblastic cells in dynamic culture conditions using titanium-doped phosphate glass microcarriers. J Tissue Eng 10:2041731419825772

Georgiou M, Reis JND, Wood R, Esteban PP, Roberton V, Mason C, Li D, Li Y, Choi D, Wall I. (2018). Bioprocessing strategies to enhance the challenging isolation of neuro-regenerative cells from olfactory mucosa. Scientific Reports 8(1):14440.

Kilic T, Valinhas ATS, Wall I, Renaud P, Carrara S. (2018). Label-free detection of hypoxia-induced extracellular vesicle secretion from MCF-7 cells. Scientific Reports 8(1):9402

Caley M, Wall IB, Peake M, Kipling D, Giles P, Thomas DW, Stephens P. (2018). Development and Characterisation of a Human Chronic Skin Wound Cell Line-Towards an Alternative for Animal Experimentation. Int J Mol Sci 9(4)

Colao IL, Corteling R, Bracewell D, Wall I. (2018). Manufacturing Exosomes: A Promising Therapeutic Platform. Trends Mol Med 24(3):242-256

Detela G, Bain OW, Kim HW, Williams DJ, Mason C, Mathur A, Wall IB. (2018). Donor variability in growth kinetics of healthy hMSCs using manual processing: considerations for manufacture of cell therapies. Biotechnol J 13(2)

Peticone C, De Silva Thompson D, Owens GJ, Kim HW, Micheletti M, Knowles JC, Wall I. (2017). Towards modular bone tissue engineering using Ti–Co-doped phosphate glass microspheres: Cytocompatibility and dynamic culture studies. J Biomater Appl 32(3):295-310

Retzepi M, Calciolari E, Wall I, Lewis MP, Donos N. (2017). The effect of experimental diabetes and glycaemic control on Guided Bone Regeneration. Histology and gene expression analyses. Clin Oral Implan Res 29(2):139-154

Masri MF, Lawrence K, Wall I, Hoare M. (2017). An ultra scale-down methodology to characterize aspects of the response of human cells to processing by membrane separation operations. Biotechnol Bioeng 114(6):1241-1251