ISTM Women in Engineering: Professor Alicia El Haj

Happy National Women in Engineering Day!

For the first post in our interview series with the female engineers in ISTM, we talked to Professor Alicia El Haj, a pioneer in regenerative medicine and our Institute Director. In recognition of her leading role in bioengineering, she received the MRC Suffrage Science Award 2015, which aims to encourage more women to pursue leadership roles in science and engineering.

You work in Cell Engineering. What does that mean?

Cell engineering involves finding new ways to use cells in treatments for human disease and injury. Essentially, we design exciting technologies for controlling the way cells behave. As a bioengineer, I take principles from engineering, such as biomechanics, and apply them to stem cells, and also use magnetic and optical materials. We often set up models of human tissues to study the way we can organise and control stem cells. This means building ‘bioreactors’, which are chambers which allow the growth of human tissues outside the body.

I got into research in this field because I found the concept of a stem cell as a therapy fascinating! But trying to find ways of controlling cells to help people suffering from disease and injury is extremely challenging. We work in an NHS environment, and everyday we see how much need there is in healthcare for new therapies. If my research can make steps forward along the pathway towards practical application in the clinic, I will have felt an enormous sense of achievement ☺. My research can also be incredible fun, allowing me to work across an international environment.

What is an exciting project you are working on at the moment? 

One of my most exciting projects at the moment is to see if we can use external magnetic fields to control the way cells behave in the body. We are designing a therapy where we attach small magnetic nanoparticles to signal systems on the cell and then inject them into a site such as the knee where we want them go and fix the cartilage. By using an external magnet, we can move the cells about and control the activation of the cell through the signal system. This means we can target cells and deliver injectable therapies which no longer need surgery! The Scientific American has an amazing article on our work in April which calls it the ‘Launch of the Nanobots!’

How did you become a Professor of Cell Engineering?

When I first went to University, I wanted to become a game warden in an African safari park! I had no idea that I would fall in love with bioengineering research, and couldn't have anticipated the enjoyment it has brought me. 

The satisfaction of spending my days trying to answer new questions with a great group of young training students is fantastic. I spent my early career travelling to different universities in Europe and the USA before settling in the UK. I enjoy my job tremendously and the variation in work day to day suits me. It allows me to balance my job with my family and my home full of the safari park that I ended up with on my doorstep! 

I was very proud to achieve a Royal Society Merit Award and gain my Professorship, which is also a reflection of the good people who have worked with me over the years.

How can we encourage more women to work in engineering? 

I get involved with action groups who try and encourage young female students to join us in a career in engineering and science. I hope that I can show them that bioengineering is for everyone! 

I like to show how engineering is not as dull as it is often portrayed, and how I have managed to balance my normal family life with my partner, our four children, and a home full of dogs and horses with a full-on career in research. 

There is a place for everyone in engineering and I hope you will consider joining us!

ISTM Women in Engineering

In our research institute we have quite a few engineers. If you are thinking of men in oil-stained overalls carrying spanners, think again! Hand tools are optional, and overalls would be an unusual outfit choice. More to the point, many of our engineers are women.

Sadly, engineering is misunderstood. Engineers do not fix cars and install new boilers. They design self-driving cars and develop new ways to produce clean energy. Engineers are inventors, who try to find solutions to problems and improve our world.

In our institute, the focus is human health: our engineers work on many biomedical research areas, such as designing prosthetic limbs, using stem cells to treat degenerative diseases, and developing new cancer therapies.

Engineering is creative and fulfilling. I am a female biomedical engineer myself, and I love it! (I do not use spanners in my work. I mostly use imaginary objects, and sometimes a pointy stick.)

However, the UK has a shortage of engineers. According to EngineeringUK, we need to double the number of recruits into engineering to meet demand. Girls in particular seem to think that engineering is not for them. I was shocked to find out that only 6% of the engineering workforce in the UK is female!

We need to encourage young people and particularly girls to consider careers in engineering. Who better to inspire them than female engineers in our institute? During the next few months, I will ask them about their work and career paths, and post their responses here.

June 23rd is National Women in Engineering Day so a fitting day to start our interview series. In the meantime, here is some reading for you: Tomorrow’s Engineers is a great website with information and resources on engineering careers. Start here: What is engineering?

Festschrift for Professor Warren Lenney

On Friday 6th June an academic meeting titled “All’s well that ends well!” was held at Keele Hall to celebrate the career of Prof Warren Lenney who is retiring in August. This “Festschrift” was attended by over one hundred family, friends and colleagues of Professor Lenney from across the UK. Ten speakers from South America, Europe and the UK gave talks covering a range of interesting topics in Paediatric and Adult Respiratory Medicine as documented below:

“Asthma and Allergy in Olympians” - Prof Kai-Håkon Carlsen, University of Oslo, Norway
“CF Nutrition: Chewing the fat” - Dr Gary Connett, University Hospital Southampton, UK
“Is Asthma Control Achievable? Can we affect it?” - Prof Søren Pedersen, Kolding Hospital, Denmark
“Poetry, Politics and Cystic Fibrosis” - Prof Kevin Webb, Manchester Adult CF Centre, UK
“Education, Education, Education!” - Dr Will Carroll, Derby Childrens Hospital, UK
“What Paediatricians Should Read” - Prof Andy Bush, Royal Brompton Hospital, UK
“Pleural Disease in Brazilian Children” - Prof Gilberto Bueno Fischer, The Federal University of Porto Allegro, Brazil
“From molecules in space to molecules in breath” - Prof David Smith (FRS), Keele University, UK
“Research is the future, the future is …..” - Dr Francis Gilchrist, Royal Stoke University Hospital, UK
“All’s well that ends well!” - Prof John Price, Kings College Hospital, UK

The meeting was a huge success and short papers from each of the speakers are going to be published in a special edition of Paediatric Respiratory Reviews later in the year.

Keele Community Day

Keele Community Day provided another opportunity this month for ISTM to engage with the public and to help raise the Institute's public profile in more valuable outreach work.  The rain couldn't keep people away on Sunday, with a large turnout and a constant stream of people visiting the ISTM table in the Chancellor's Building.  Children and adults alike were keen to speak to Paul Roach and Joseph Clarke regarding the Institute's research activities and to learn more about the 3D printer that was on show.  Visitors were able to view lay posters from the recent ISTM Post Graduate Symposium as well as watch the 3D printer at work, printing out models of body parts, after which visitors were tested on their knowledge of the anatomy.  A* for those that were able to identify the ear bones!

Paul Roach demonstrating his 3D printer

Over at the MacKay Building, members of the ISTM Rehab theme also joined forces with staff and students from the School of Health and Rehabilitation to show visitors some of the biomedical technology used for assessing human movement. People had a go at testing their balance, looked at how symmetrical they were during rowing, and were able to visualise the activity of their muscles using a technique known as electromyography. Kids in particular really enjoyed seeing their muscles working and we were impressed by how much some of the young ones seemed to know!

A student demonstrating the measurement of muscle activity with electromyography 

International Clinical Trials Day

Abby and Katie talk research

A team of staff, students and post-graduates, represented ISTM at a public exhibition in the foyer of the Royal Stoke University Hospital on Wednesday.  The gathering provided a showcase for a wide range of clinical trials in which Keele University is involved in.  The team from ISTM engaged with a wide and varied audience that included patients and school children as well as clinicians, students and even the Hospital's Chief Executive, Mark Hackett.  The event provided a unique opportunity to raise the Institute's profile and to promote some of the work and research that goes on there.

Faiza and Matt helping to promote ISTM

The event was organised by the University Hospital of North Midlands R&D Office as part of International Clinical Trials Day, held each year on 20 May to commemorate the day that James Lind began his trials into the causes of scurvy while serving as a surgeon on the ship HMS Salisbury. Lind fed members of the crew different diets in a controlled study, laying the foundation for the clinical trial as we know it today.

Helpers included (LtoR)Yanny Baba Ismail, Abigail Rutter & Katie Bardsley, as well as Mathew Dunn, Faiza Musa. Yvonne Reinwald, Anthony  Deegan and Joseph Clarke

School outreach programme

At the Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine (ISTM) we are committed to communicating science to the wider public and learners of all ages. Our students and staff have taken part in various public outreach initiatives and they are now writing for the Healthcare Engineering and Regenerative Therapies (HEART) blog. The HEART group is composed of researchers from Keele University, Loughborough University and Nottingham University.

James Henstock talking to pupils from Al Aqsa School

For the first time this year, we welcomed pupils from the Al-Aqsa School in Leicester who came to visit our research facilities. The school visit was organised as part of the HEART Outreach group’s school workshop programme and the Al-Aqsa School’s work experience week.

The group of year 9 and 10 pupils spent a day in ISTM’s laboratories at the Guy Hilton Research Centre and had the opportunity to participate in a range of activities related to the innovative work that is carried out at ISTM. These activities were led by post-graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and academics who demonstrated equipment and laboratory techniques with the aim of sharing our knowledge about stem cells; biomaterials; regenerative medicine; bioreactor technology; nanotechnology; magnetics; and cancer research.

Katie Bardsley giving a demonstration during the visit to the ISTM labs

With our school outreach programme and our passion for medical research we are hoping to communicate our work to new learners and the wider community, as well as to inspire more students to take up study in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects. 

Healthcare Engineering and Regenerative Therapies (HEART) blog

Accelerating bone formation for the treatment of defects and fractures

Rapid, effective repair of large bone defects or fractures is still a challenging issue in orthopaedic surgery. If the defect or fracture is too large, natural bone repair often cannot occur and therefore, medical treatment is required. Cell therapy using either stem cells or bone cells is a promising new therapy for such cases. Clinical trials, however, have so far generated mixed results in terms of speed and quality of repair. Thus, improving bone formation is one of the hurdles in the translation of regenerative medicine for bone repair.

Bone has a unique ability to repair itself with the process of bone repair following the same pathway as healthy bone development. Direct or ‘intramembranous’ bone development within the body is characterised by a complex series of reactions which ultimately result in the growth of bone.

Inspired by natural bone formation, the Biomaterials Group at the Institute for Science & Technology in Medicine (ISTM), together with orthopaedic surgeon, Mr Konduru of the University Hospital of North Midlands (UHNM), have developed a simple and convenient technique to improve bone growth. This technique uses surface modification to change the environment the cells are grown in to force them to form clusters or aggregates of particular sizes. An osteoblast cell line and human bone marrow-derived stem cells have both been used to test this new bone growth method and have provided clear evidence that the aggregates produced from this technique can enhance bone formation by following the same pathway as natural bone growth or repair (Figure 1). 

Figure 1: SEM elemental analysis showing calcium production in bone aggregates and monolayer samples after 3 day osteogenic stimulation. A: big aggregate; B: small aggregate; C: monolayer 

Cell aggregation is an essential step in natural ‘intramembranous’ bone formation because the way in which the cells are in contact with one another induces several events to take place to form an osteoid which will then become the centre for new bone formation. Our data has shown that growing osteoblast cells in aggregate form can generate far more mineralised matrix (the building blocks of bone) than culturing them in a standard monolayer fashion. Furthermore, the size of the aggregate has a significant influence on the mineral content and composition within that bone aggregate. Four important molecules required for the formation of bone, COL1, ALP, OPN and OCN, displayed different expression patterns depending on the aggregate size (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Prediction and matching of the gene expression of different osteoblast culture environments (monolayer, small and big aggregate) in the bone development stages.

It is therefore proposed that growing bone cells in an aggregate form will encourage them towards developing bone, while the size of the aggregate will determine how quickly they will develop bone. This aggregation study offers a simple but effective model that can be used to quickly create high quality bone for use in fundamental investigations or even clinical applications.