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

Undergraduate teaching

2024-present IBMS4 course lecturer, Zhejiang University, China

2024-present Biomedical Sciences BSc Hons course lecturer, Edinburgh, UK

2022-present Annual technology translation lecture, Zhejiang University, China

2021-present Intercalated Batchelor of Medical Sciences lecturer, Edinburgh, UK

Postgraduate teaching

2025-present China Business Europe International Business School EMBA

2025-present BD1 course lecturer, Zhejiang University, China

2024-present BD2 course lecturer,Zhejiang University, China

2023-present MScR Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Repair tutor, Edinburgh, UK

2023-present Biotechnology MSc course lecturer, Bath University, UK

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Current PhD students supervised

Mr Yihan Chai, PhD Student

Past PhD students supervised

2022-2026 PhD Student, Kexin Nie

2022-2026 PhD student, Kasia Stefaniak

2021-2025 PhD Student, Xiao Xiao

2020-2025 PhD Student, Wenyue Li

2020-2024 PhD Student, Alvile Kasarinaite

2021-2025 PhD student, Qian Tang

2021-2025 PhD student, Qizhe Shao

2021-2025 PhD student, Honglin Yu

2020-2024 PhD Student, Shoukang Du

2024-2025 MSc student, Yu Lyu

2021-2025 PhD student, Fokhrul Islam

2021-2024 PhD Student, Yashi Gu

2020-2025 PhD Student, Yiyang Yan

2019-2022 PhD Student, Rossana Boni

2019-2022 PhD Student, Yunxi Gao

2017-2022 PhD Student, Angus Marks

2019-2022 PhD Student, Kathy Aikaterini

2017-2021 PhD Student, Graham Anderson

2016-2021 PhD Student, Sharmin Alhaque

2017-2021 PhD Student, John Tranter

2017-2021 PhD Student, John Hallett

2019-2020 MSc Student, Jiazheng Lai

2017-2020 PhD Student, Matthew Sinton

2015-2019 PhD Student, Gregor Skeldon

2016-2019 PhD Student, Valentina Rausch

2016-2019 PhD Student, Jose Meseguer-Ripolles

2015-2019 PhD Student, Almar Neiteler

2014-2018 PhD Student, Sara Schmidtt

2014-2017 PhD Student, Rhiannon Grant

2014-2017 PhD Student, Yu Wang

2014-2017 PhD Student, Andrea Venturato

2017 PhD Student, Sebastian Greenhough

2011-2015 PhD Student, Chris West

2011-2014 PhD Student, Dagmara Szkolnicka

2010-2014 PhD Student, Baltasar Lucendo-Villarin

2014 MSc Student, Rosanne Tan

2012 MSc Student, Sylvain Rodriguez

2011-2015 PhD Student, Daria Paruzina

2011-2014 PhD Student, Wei-Yu Lu

2010-2014 PhD Student, Adam Gow

2009-2012 PhD Student, Wenli Zhou

2010-2013 PhD Student, Ruchi Sharma

2009-2010 MSc Student, Naomi Julien

2007-2011 PhD Student, Zara Hannoun

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

Current research interests

Post Doctoral Researchers: 1. Dr Alvile Kasarinaite - studying sex specific traits of human metabolic liver disease 2. Dr Fatma Kok - studying the role that livestock pluripotent stem cells have to play in cellular agriculture 3. Dr Xiao Li - studying the affect of aging on metabolic disease establishment and progression in the liver