Our research
The ability to regenerate damaged tissue is one of the great challenges in the fields of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Our goal is to study the fundamental science of cell-material interactions and apply this knowledge to the design of biomaterials that translate into clinical solutions. Our group is developing approaches to control cell behaviour through their innate ability to sense and respond to local meso-, micro-, and nanoscale patterns of chemistry, stiffness, and topography. Our polymer systems can be functionalised for drug delivery and with biological and synthetic cues to instruct the entire lifecycle of the tissue, from cell binding and differentiation, to cell-induced material remodeling and ultimate tissue organisation and function. These materials though designed for the clinic can be also used as platform systems to study a wide variety of instructive environments for tissue regeneration and cell fate. The Stevens group is also innovating how the cell-material interface can be explored with cutting edge materials analysis approaches such as live cell micro-Raman spectroscopy and correlative nanoscale resolution imaging approaches.
Collaboration
We are working in close collaboration with our sister group at Imperial College London, UK www.stevensgroup.org.
The Stevens group has been awarded over 20 major awards including the 2014 Research group of the year at the European Life Sciences Awards and the EU40 Prize from the European Materials Research Society for best materials scientist under 40.