Cyborg futures - the challenge of implanting and integrating artificial muscle

Professor Dame Molly Stevens DBE FREng FRS is John Black Professor of Bionanoscience at the University of Oxford and also holds part-time professorships at Imperial College London and the Karolinska Institute. Professor Stevens’ multidisciplinary research balances the investigation of fundamental science with the development of technology to address some of the major healthcare challenges. She is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of several companies in the diagnostics, advanced therapeutics and regenerative medicine space. Her work has been instrumental in elucidating the bio-material interfaces. She has created a broad portfolio of designer biomaterials for applications in disease diagnostics and regenerative medicine. Her substantial body of work influences research groups around the world (>450 publications, h-index 123, >58k citations, Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher). Professor Stevens holds numerous leadership positions including Deputy Director of the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery and the UK Quantum Biomedical Sensing Research Hub, and Scientist Trustee of the National Gallery. She is Fellow of the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK), Foreign Member of the National Academy of Engineering (USA), International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and she has been recognised with over 30 international awards including the 2023 Novo Nordisk Prize.

Dr Catalina Pineda Molina is a Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Surgery, working with Dr Stephen Badylak and Dr George Hussey at the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine a the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to joining the University of Pittsburgh, she was was an Assistant Professor and Head of the Biomedical Engineering Program at Universidad CES, in Medellín, Colombia. In 2014, she received a Fulbright Scholarship to pursue her PhD in Bioengineering.

Dr Pineda Molina's research interests are focused on tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications, particularly developing and evaluating naturally derived biomaterials for the promotion of appropriate  constructive tissue remodelling. In particular, she is interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms associated to host-biomaterial interactions and how these can be modulated through molecular bioactive markers, thus advancing in biomaterials science and the immunobiology associated to biomaterials.

Rashid Bashir is Professor of Bioengineering, the Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering, and is currently the Dean of Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is an internationally renowned scholar in micro-fluidics, nanotechnology and 3D bio-fabrication. He has authored or co-authored over 320 journal papers and has been granted over 65 patents. He was on the founding team of the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago. He is a member of the US National Academy of Inventors, the US National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2024.

Dr Ruoxiao Xie is a Lecturer in Bioengineering within the School of Engineering at the University of Liverpool. She received her PhD from Tsinghua University in 2020. From 2020 to 2024, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Professor Dame Molly Stevens' group in the Department of Materials at Imperial College London. Her research group at the University of Liverpool focuses on developing engineered tissues and organ/organoid-on-a-chip platforms for applications in disease modelling, drug screening, and tissue regeneration. To achieve these goals, her team is also developing innovative biomaterials, biofabrication strategies and bioreactors to enhance tissue patterning and maturation, thus improving the functionality of engineered tissues and organ/organoid-on-a-chip platforms.

Professor Alicia El Haj is a leading UK figure in Bioengineering and Regenerative Medicine and has been involved in bringing together interdisciplinary groups within biomedicine, physical sciences and engineering to develop innovative new cell based therapies to the clinic. She has published over a 300 publications in novel enabling technologies such as novel cell and tissue engineering approaches, bioreactors technology, biomaterials and new imaging systems for regenerative medicine with funding from EPSRC, MRC, BBSRC, AR UK Innovate and EU FP in the UK. She is a co-Director of a CDT programme in Regen Med, and a UKRMP Hub in Engineering the Stem cell niche. ISTM has been progressing cell therapies into routine clinical use in orthopaedics for the past ten years working with consultant orthopaedic surgeons. She is also a Director of a spin out company, MICA Biosystems Ltd involved in translating her patents into clinical use. Professor El Haj was awarded a Royal Society Merit Award in 2014 and in March 2015, was awarded the MRC Suffrage Award for her role in leading women in STEM.

Nazia Mehrban is Assistant Professor of Biotechnology at the University of Bath, UK. She received her PhD in ligament engineering from the University of Birmingham and has held post-doctoral appointments at University of Bristol and University College London with a visiting scholar position at University of Pittsburgh. Her interdisciplinary group works at the interface between biology, chemistry, and engineering focusing on fundamental underpinning work towards designing, manufacturing, and characterising bespoke biomaterials for unmet clinical needs. Her research crosses the boundary between natural and synthetic materials and uses a bottom-up design approach for the creation of novel materials. The innovative and bespoke ‘smart’ materials her group manufactures are chemically and physically tuneable allowing control of cellular behaviour towards various applications including tissue repair & regeneration, extracellular matrix reconstruction and integrative materials for implantable devices.

Martin is a professor of laryngology at UCL and a consultant in ENT surgery at the Royal National Ear, Nose and Throat and Eastman Dental Hospital. He is a highly ranked academic otolaryngologist as measured by the impact of his research, teaching and papers. A specialist in disorders of voice, swallowing and breathing, he has pioneered the use of transplantation, tissue engineering and soft robots in surgery. Clinically, he has a particular interest in voice and swallowing, as well as the interface between upper GI medicine and laryngology. He treats patients with vocal cord weakness ('palsy') and pioneered new means of restoring function for them using the drive from unaffected nerves (laryngeal reinnervation). In interventional clinic, run with top speech and language therapists, he uses advanced technology, including transnasal oesophagoscopy, awake laser procedures and transcutaneous vocal cord injection, to treat throat and voice problems. He has a special interest in throat problems affecting persons with hypermobility disorders, including EDS. He has a large research network concentrating on the use of innovative technology to manage disorders of the head and neck, especially the use of biomaterials, cells, and soft robots. With Prof Elliott at Great Ormond St and others, he co-led the team which delivered the world’s first tissue engineered implants (tracheal) to a series of children between 2010 and 2014. In 2010, he was also part of the team which performed the world's second (and first functionally reinnervated) laryngeal transplant at UC Davis, California. He was Morgan Stanley Briton of the Year (Science and Technology), 2008, and is a frequent guest speaker at major international conferences. He has published in the Lancet, Nature and the BMJ. With Prof Sandhu and Prof Howard (Imperial College), he founded the British Laryngological Association in 2011, and helps run successful bi-annual conferences 'Cutting Edge Laryngology' and Soft Robotics in Healthcare (‘SoRo’). He was the first otolaryngologist to be elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2010 and was awarded NIHR Senior Investigator status in 2012 and renewed in 2020. He is Trustee of both the National Association of Laryngectomee Clubs and the Throat Cancer Foundation. He is passionate about involving patients and publics in medical science, including the present innovative arts-science initiative “A Sound Voice”. He presently has a particular interest in how we may include access to clinical trials for all parts of society, overcoming barriers of race, ethnicity, language, gender identity and economic deprivation. He has long supported students from communities with less tradition of careers in science and medicine (“STEM” subjects), on to success in University applications and beyond. He has five children and is a keen road and gravel cyclist and an enthusiastic follower of Liverpool Football Club.

Dana D Damian is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Sheffield. She received her PhD from the University of Zurich in 2012. She was a visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, and Carnegie Mellon University (2011/2013). She was a postdoctoral research fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School before joining the University of Sheffield. She leads the Sheffield Biomedical Robotics Laboratory where her group’s mission is to develop bionic and implantable devices that show life-like behaviour and sustain operation for long-term therapies, and are minimally invasive, in order to advance surgical treatments and regenerative medicine. Her research has been supported by EPSRC, UKRI, MRC and SNSF, and highlighted on BBC, at House of Lords, etc.

Avril McCarthy is a Consultant Clinical Scientist in clinical engineering at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. A Fellow of The Academy for Healthcare Science, she has an established NIHR and EPSRC research track record spanning orthopaedic, continence and rehabilitative technologies. She received her PhD from the Faculty of Engineering, University of Sheffield. Following a post-doc position within a pan-European project to design a meniscal knee implant, collaborating with leading orthopaedic, software, and virtual prototyping companies, she worked clinically in gait and movement analysis for the NHS working, before concentrating on medical device innovation; most recently a neuro-stimulation device clinical trial for stroke rehabilitation. Avril has been a long-standing member of the leadership team of NIHR Long Term Conditions HealthTech Research Centre – Devices for Dignity, now leading its ‘Pathways to Implementation and Impact’ Theme.

In addition, Avril has been an active member of the UK’s National Institute for health and Care Excellence (NICE) Medical Technologies Advisory Committee since 2016.

Richard Huxtable is Professor of Medical Ethics and Law, based in the Centre for Ethics in Medicine, in the Medical School at the University of Bristol. His research interests include surgical ethics, clinical ethics, and end-of-life ethics. He has undertaken research on surgical innovation, as part of Bristol’s NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, and on the development of artificial muscles, as part of the EPSRC emPOWER project. Richard serves, or has served, on numerous ethics committees and boards, including those of the BMA, RCGP, Institute of Medical Ethics, the UK Clinical Ethics Network, and the European Association of Centres of Medical Ethics.

Andrew Conn is an Associate Professor of Robotics at the University of Bristol, who obtained a PhD from the same institution in 2008. He leads a group of 7 researchers in the field of biorobotics with a focus on the integration of functional materials and physical intelligence into systems such as mobile robots, wearable technologies and implantable healthcare devices. This is driven by the potential for great improvements in human-robot interaction and robot mobility in unstructured environments.