Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

Regenerative medicine is a key strand for Newcastle Health Innovation Partners. This is our regional Academic Health Science Centre, made up of five partners:

• Newcastle University
• Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust
• Newcastle City Council
• Academic Health Science Network for North East and North Cumbria

We’re working to establish a pan-European taskforce to improve organ regulations. This covers next-generation tissue-engineered or even organ-engineered therapeutics to treat end-stage organ failure. This is in collaboration with the European Society for Organ Transplantation.

Newcastle is working with the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute. We’re developing innovative platforms to study and better understand post-treatment cell fate. This includes experimental developments and testing, and the development of the DEPICT Database (Descriptive Elements of Pharmacist Interventions Characterization Tool). DEPICT is a searchable online central repository of clinical studies. Researchers can evaluate the biodistribution and fate of therapeutic cells after administration. The platform includes including in vivo cell-tracking methodologies.

Newcastle and Cambridge University co-host the NIHR-funded (National Institute for Health and Care Research) Blood and Transplant Research Unit in Organ Donation and Transplantation. We focus many of our activities on leveraging a variety of adjunctive therapies, including:

• traditional pharmaceuticals such as antibiotics
• engineered cell therapies to enable organ transplants that would otherwise be unsafe

Reactive jet impingement (ReJI) is a new 3D bioprinting process developed at Newcastle University. It allows cells embedded within hydrogels to be printed on a wide range of substrates. This creates tissue-engineered structures for in vitro modelling, or regenerative medicine. ReJI offers a unique approach to bioprinting with high cell densities.

We have expertise in the development of new materials to use in tissue engineering. This includes:

• bioceramics, biocomposites and biopolymers for hard tissues
• natural and synthetic hydrogels for soft tissues

Electrospinning generates fibrous biomaterial structures for a range of applications. The development of new bio-inks for 3D printing and 3D bioprinting systems considers both our own ReJI bioprinting process and polymer and hydrogel extrusion systems.

The Institute of Transplantation is the only UK centre providing all-solid organ transplants. We’re proud that our research enabled its pancreatic islet cell transplantation programme.

We’re a regional centre for the MRC QUOD initiative. This unique resource aims to enhance transplant outcomes. It speeds up the translation of advanced therapy organ replacement. The initiative also enables endogenous organ regeneration.

The Innovate UK NA-ATTC is co-led by Newcastle. It fosters advanced therapy trials and clinical adoption locally, regionally and nationally.

The Transplant Regenerative Medicine Labs is a research hub for donor organ perfusion. Its platform provides for maintenance and resuscitation before transplantation. The hub develops processes for ex vivo delivery of advanced therapeutics to:

• cells
• organoids
• whole organs

Newcastle Advanced Therapies provides bespoke GMP clean room manufacturing facilities. These include gene therapy medicines, somatic-cell therapies and tissue-engineered products.