David Hay

Group Leader and Professor of Tissue Engineering

Institute for Regeneration and Repair
Centre for Regenerative Medicine

Tel: 0131 651 9500
Email: david.hay@ed.ac.uk

Street: Centre for Regenerative Medicine
Institute for Regeneration and Repair
The University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh BioQuarter
5 Little France Drive
City: Edinburgh
Post code: EH16 4UU

Biography

Background

Dave is Professor of Tissue Engineering at the Institute for Regeneration and Repair (IRR), University of Edinburgh. He received his PhD from the University of St Andrews in 2000. Following this he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Roslin Institute and the University of Edinburgh. In 2008, he secured a RCUK fellowship and started his own research group at the Centre for Regenerative Medicine. Dave has worked in the field of stem cell biology and differentiation for over 20 years. He and his team have highlighted the important role that pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) have to play in modelling human biology ‘in the dish’ and supporting failing liver function in vivo.

Qualifications

BSc (hons), PhD

Responsibilities & affiliations

2024-present Section Editor, Heliyon, Developmental Biology, Cell Press

2023-present Adjunct Professor, Zhejiang University, China

2023-present UKRI Interdisciplinary Assessment College Panel Member

2021-present Founder, Chairman and CEO, Stimuliver ApS

2020-present University of Edinburgh Senate Member

2017-present Chair of Tissue Engineering, University of Edinburgh

2016-present Co-Founder and Director, Stemnovate Limited, UK

Teaching & PhD supervision

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Current PhD students supervised

Ms Alvile Kasarinaite

Ms Kasia Stefaniak

Research

Research summary

Liver Tissue Development and Engineering

The liver plays a vital role in human health, including the detoxification of foreign substances. We use stem cells to grow liver tissue in the laboratory. The stem cells we use are called human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells. The attraction of using these cell populations is their indefinite growth in the lab and their ability to form all the cells found in the human body. We have developed reliable methods for building human liver tissue. Encouragingly, it behaves in a similar way to the liver found in the human body. We believe our liver tissue has an important part to play in improving human drug development and repurposing; modelling human disease and in the future may provide an alternative source of human tissue to treat failing human liver function.

Dave Hay Research Group page