Professor Kevin Shakesheff

Head of School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham

Kevin holds a Chair in Tissue Engineering at the University of Nottingham, UK and is Head of the School of Phamracy, the leading research centre for pharmacy in RAE2008. He is founder of RegenTec Ltd (2001), co-founder of Critical Pharmaceuticals (2003) and co-founder of the UK Tissue and Cell Engineering Society (1998). He qualified as a Pharmacist in 1992 (Member Royal Pharmaceutical Society) and his research has received awards from the World Congress of Pharmaceutical Sciences (2007, Research Achievement), Institute of Chemical Engineering (2003, Hanson Award), MIT Technology Review (2002 Top 100 Young Inventors), The Royal Institution (2000, Scientists for the New Century) amongst others. In 2009 he received one of the first European Research Council Advanced Investigator Awards.

A varied career has included spells in industry (product development at Fisons Pharmaceuticals), hospital pharmacy (pharmacist) & academia (MIT, NATO Fellowship). He currently runs a team of 20 researchers working at the interface between stem cell science and materials research. He has invented new injectable scaffolds, novel manufacturing routes for growth factor releasing systems, new stem cell culture methodologies and 3D liver cultures.

The key theme of Kevin’s research is bringing together multidisciplinary teams to tackle major healthcare and industrial opportunities. Outcomes of his research have included new materials for clinical application, novel cell delivery systems and tissue engineering models for use by the pharmaceutical industry.

To promote the fields of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering, Kevin has served on numerous strategic and grant awarding committees. These include the UK Stem Cell Bank Steering Committee (2007 onwards), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Healthy Organism Panel (2005 onwards), BBSRC Engineering and Biological Systems Committee (2000 to 2005), National Centre for Refinement, Replacement and Reduction (2004 onwards), Foresight Panel for Biomaterials (2003) & EU COST Ad Hoc Committee for Biomaterials (2001 to 2002). He is a member of the Biological and Vaccines Expert Advisory Board for the MHRA.l