Professor Alicia J El Haj

Research Interests:

• Orthopaedic tissue engineering;

• Bioreactors and in vitro conditioning for tissue growth;

• Magnetic nanotechnologies for stem cell targeting.

Research grants held at Keele:

Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), UK
2008-2013 Doctoral Training Centre in Regenerative Medicine with Nottingham and Loughborough universities - see website for the DTC in Regenerative Medicine.
2008-2011 £285,272 3ME - Modelling Methods for Medical Engineering (with Prof Jon Dobson, Prof Peter Styles and Prof Graham Rogerson) to foster collaboration between medical engineering, applied mathematics and geophysics - see website for the 3ME Initiative.
2005-2008 £382,912 Micromechanical analysis of chondrocytes – the role of the pericellular matrix. (Dr Nicky Kuiper (nee Goodstone) and Prof Alicia El Haj). A collaboration with Dr Zhang, Prof Thomas, Chemical Engineering,  Birmingham University
2004 – 2006 £215,356 Development of a mechano-active scaffold for skeletal tissue. (with Dr Ying Yang).
2001 – 2004 £238,156 High resolution optical tomographic imaging of in vivo micro-circulation.
2001 - 2003 £62,205 Development of novel magnetic force bioreactor for tissue engineering.
1999 - 2002 £258,854 Development of the TSIFT for breath analysis and analysis of headspace above cells in vitro. (with Prof David Smith).

Wellcome Trust, UK
2002 – 2004 £125,000 Sir Henry Wellcome Showcase Award - Biomagnetic strategies for therapeutics in bone. (Prof Alicia El Haj and Prof Jon Dobson)
 

Recent external appointments:
 

• HEFCE, UK RAE Panel member – UoA25 General Engineering 2005-2008
• BBSRC Member of Engineering and Bioscience Panel (EBS) 2006
• Member Academic Advisory Group – Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine – 2006 –
• Women’s Working Party of the IFMBE – 2004 -
• MRC College of Experts 2003 – Chairman panel – Interdisciplinary Awards
• Strategic Advisory Team member – Life Sciences interface – 2003-
• EPSRC College and Panel Member/Chairman 1997-
• International Science Committee of ICCE Advisory Board 2003 -
• President UK Cell & Tissue Engineering 2003 –
• Co-Opted Expert in Cellular Engineering, Institute of Physics and Medicine Physiological SIG 1998-2001

Selection of recent publications:

Magra, M , Hughes,S, El Haj, AJ and Mafulli, N ( 2007) VOCCs and TREK1 ion channel expression in human tenocytes Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 292 C 100-105

Bagnaninchi P, Yang Y, Zghoul N, Maffulli N and El Haj AJ (2006) Chitosan Microchannels Scaffolds for Tendon Tissue Engineering Characterized by Optical Coherence Tomography. Tissue Engineering

Wood M, Hughes S, Yang Y and El Haj AJ (2006) Characterising the efficacy of calcium channel agonist-release strategies for bone tissue engineering applications. J Control Release May;1;112(1) 96-102

Yang Y and El Haj AJ (2006) Biodegradable scaffolds, delivery systems for cell therapies. Expert Opin Biol Ther. May;6(5) 485-98

Hughes S, Magnay J, Foreman M, Publicover SJ, Dobson, P and El Haj AJ (2006) Expression of the mechanosensitive 2PK+ channel TREK-1 in human osteoblasts. J Cellular Physiology 206(3) 738-748

Yang Y, Yiu HH, and El Haj AJ (2005) On-line fluorescent monitoring of the degradation of polymeric scaffolds for tissue engineering Analyst 130(11)1502-1506

Freyria A-M, Yang Y, Chajra H, Rousseau CF, Ronziere M-C, Herbage D and El Haj AJ (2005) Optimisation of dynamic culture conditions: effects on biosynthetic activities of chondrocytes grown in collagen sponges. Tissue Engineering 11:1502-6

El Haj AJ, Wood M, Thomas P and Yang Y (2005) Controlling cell biomechanics in orthopaedic tissue engineering and repair. Pathol Biol Dec; 53(10); 581-589

Hughes S, El Haj AJ and Dobson J (2005) Magnetic micro-and nanoparticles medicated activation of mechanosensitive ion channels. Medical Engineering and Physics 27(9): 754-762

Hughes S, El Haj AJ, Dobson J and Martinac B. (2005) The influence of static magnetic fields on mechanosensitive ion channel activity in artificial liposomes European Biophysics J 34(5) 461-468

Yang Y, Sule-Suso J, Sockalingum GD, Kegelaer G, Manfait M and El Haj AJ ( 2005) Study of tumour cell invasion by Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy. Biopolymers 78(6) 311-7

Sharma P, Yang Y and El Haj, A (2004) Scaffold design and synthesis for bone tissue engineering. CME Orthopaedics 3(3) 71-76

Yang Y, Magnay J, Cooling L, Cooper JJ and El Haj AJ (2004) Effects of substrate characteristics on bone cell response to the mechanical environment. MBEC 42(1): 22-29

Cartmell S and El Haj AJ (2004) Mechanical bioreactors for tissue engineering. Bioreactors for Tissue Engineering Eds Chaudhuri JB and Rubeai MA (Kluwer Academic Publishers)

Cartmell, SH, Magnay, J, Dobson, J, El Haj, AJ (2003) Effects of mechanical force application on 3D bone tissue engineered constructs using magnetic microparticles. Eur. Cells & Mater. 6(Supp 2) p7

Yang, Y, Magnay, J and El Haj, AJ (2002) Development of mechano responsive scaffold for tissue engineering. Biomaterials 23,pp 2119-2126

Walker LM, Publicover SJ, Preston MR, Said Ahmed MAA, El Haj AJ (2000) Calcium channel activation and matrix protein up-regulation in bone cells in response to mechanical strain. Journal of Cellular Biochemistry 79: 648-61

Peake MA, Cooling LM, Magnay JL, Thomas PBM, El Haj AJ (2000) Regulatory pathways involved in mechanical induction of c-fos gene expression in bone cells Journal of Applied Physiology 89: 2498-2507

Walker LM, Holm A, Maxwell L, Oberg A, Sundqvist T, El Haj AJ (1999) Mechanical manipulation of bone and cartilage cells with optical tweezers FEBS Letters 459: 39-42

Patents:

UK/International patents:
• Stem cell conditioning.  WO 2005059118  2003
• Culturing tissue using magnetic gen mech stress.  WO 2004/00369  2002
• Magnetic nanoparticles as ion channel agonists. WO 02/051985  2002