Regenerating organs and other small challenges

Clifford Paterson Lecture given by Professor Molly Stevens

The Royal Society, London 6-9 Carlton House Terrace London SW1Y 5AG

A disagreeable side effect of longer life-spans is the failure of one part of the body – the knees, for example – before the body as a whole is ready to surrender. The search for replacement body parts has fueled the highly interdisciplinary field of tissue engineering and
regenerative medicine.
This talk will describe Professor Stevens' research using directed stem cell differentiation for musculoskeletal engineering and new approaches in tissue regeneration including modulation of cell behavior through
nanoscale architecture and bioactive scaffolds.


Another example of bio-inspired engineering is the use of biomolecular assembly processes to create higher order architectures. Professor Stevens' group has current research efforts in exploiting specific biomolecular recognition and self-assembly mechanisms to create new dynamic nano-materials, biosensors and drug delivery systems. This talk will give an overview of their recently developed peptide-functionalised nanoparticles for enzyme biosensing that have enabled the most sensitive facile enzyme detection to date and have a host of applications across diseases ranging from cancer to global health applications.


Professor Molly Stevens was awarded the Clifford Paterson Prize for her significant contributions to the biomedical applications of materials science.