Invited Speakers

This network includes chemical engineering, biomedical science, computer science, applied mathematics, chemistry and physics, working together to advance new technologies and treatments that encourage better tissue healing and rehabilitation tools for healthcare applications.

Professor Grover is a materials scientist by training, and completed his PhD at the University of Birmingham before moving to McGill University (Montreal), to work as a CIHR skeletal health scholar. He returned to Birmingham in 2006 to establish a research group within the School of Chemical Engineering. He has published widely on the development of new materials to replace the function of tissues (more than 180 papers) and has filed more than ten patents to protect technologies that range from osteogenic cements through to scar reducing dressings; and progressed three technologies from concept through to clinical trials.
He was the youngest Professor in the history of the University of Birmingham (32) and the youngest ever Fellow of the Institute of Materials (30). Since returning to Birmingham, he has raised over £30m to fund his research on the development and translation of novel medical technologies and is the Founder-Director of the Healthcare Technologies Institute.

He obtained his PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Manchester in 2000, being appointed Senior lecturer and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Manchester in 2007, where he was also Director of the EPSRC & MRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Regeneration Medicine. In 2016, Professor Hardman was appointed Reader in Wound Healing at the University of Hull, being promoted to Professor in 2018.
Professor Hardman’s research spans basic biology through to clinical studies, being funded by the Medical Research Council, National Institutes of Health and a number of charities. His wound healing group also engages with a number of industry partners and the Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, ensuring a clear route to patient benefit.

Dr Reddell leads the company’s multidisciplinary portfolio of in-house and university-contracted discovery and translational research projects.  The company’s most advanced products are in oncology (a small molecule in Phase II clinical trials in the UK, Australia and the USA for treatment of head and neck cancers and soft tissue sarcomas) and wound healing (EBC-1013 in a Phase I safety trial in Australia in patients with venous leg ulcers).  Prior to co-founding QBiotics, Dr Reddell held numerous roles in government, industry and academia including as Senior Principal Research Scientist in the Australian Government’s Scientific Research Organisation (CSIRO), an independent member of the Australian Department of Health’s Gene Technology Technical Advisory Committee, Professorships at Oregon State University and the University of Hong Kong, and a Post-doctoral Fellowship at the University of Bristol.  Dr Reddell holds a PhD from the University of Western Australia and was appointed a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, for his role in facilitating translation of basic scientific research into commercial opportunities.

As a veterinary surgeon, Professor Volk’s clinical interests focus on surgical oncology, cutaneous wounds and their reconstruction, with specific expertise in regenerative medical therapies. Such research activities are complimented by a basic research programme focused on understanding the regulatory mechanisms governing dynamic interactions between cells and their surrounding extracellular matrix in both regenerative and tumor microenvironments, and to apply this knowledge to develop innovative regenerative and oncologic therapies for veterinary and human patients.
In addition to being an active member of several national and international societies, Professor Volk will be elected President of the Wound Healing Society (WHS) at it’s meeting in April-May 2025.

He, then moved to Uppsala University, Sweden to pursue his Postdoctoral studies in the field of regenerative medicine. In 2016, he joined Tampere University, Finland, as a tenure-track Assistant Professor, establishing the Bioengineering and Nanomedicine Group, and became Associate Professor in 2020. In July 2024, he joined Cardiff University’s School of Pharmacy as a Lecturer. His multidisciplinary research focuses on biomaterials, nanomedicine, and tissue engineering. He developed ECM mimetic nanoparticles that effectively penetrate blood-brain barrier and suppress glioma growth in PDX models. He is developing novel bioconjugation strategies to develop advanced 3D scaffolds for tissue engineering and 3D bioprinting. He is currently developing physiologically relevant 3D tumour microenvironment (TME) models (prostate TME and brain TME), to study intricate immune-cancer interactions.

Maki has expertise in the political economy of biomedical innovation and the healthcare industry, including regenerative medicine.
Maki has attracted funding on projects relating to different aspects of innovation, including the Wellcome Trust, the Japan Foundation Endowment Committee and the Michelin Fellowship. She also been a visiting researcher at the Department of Political Economy at King’s College London, and the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris. Maki is the Alfred D. Chandler Jr. International Visiting Scholar in Business History at Harvard Business School for 2023.
Maki is a member of the Society for the Advancement of Socioeconomics, the Business History Conference, the Association of Business Historians and the Academy of Management. She is also on the editorial board of the journal, Business History. She is Chair of the Business School’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Forum and a member of the People Committee.

During this time, Dr Davies discovered a novel stem cell population within the oral cavity, which she patented and won multiple awards related to this work.

She subsequently moved to Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. As an Associate Professor, Dr Davies worked with basic science and clinical trial development using stromal cells from different tissue sources. Alongside her academic work, she worked with the Finnish Red Cross Blood Service and an industrial partner in developing a new medical device for burns therapy. In 2020, Dr Davies moved into industry setting up her own consulting company, CellTherEx, to support academics and companies spinning out and handling regulatory compliance within the drug discovery and advanced therapeutic development space. This offered her the opportunity to join NextCell Pharma, a cell therapy company, developing stromal cell products for usage in multiple clinical indications. As their Chief Scientific Officer, she has supported the company´s movement from a phase I company, with one initial clinical trial to 5 active Phase I/II trials, international expansion and a phase III in development. In 2024, Dr Davies co-founded QVance, a subsidiary of NextCell Pharma, specialising in quality control analytics service provision for advanced therapy developers. The company was launched in November 2024 and aims to be a “one-stop-shop” analytics company serving the Nordics and wider Europe.

Dr Davies continues to work closely with academia in the space of wound healing and cell therapy development. In addition to her academic and industrial roles, Lindsay is European Secretary for the ISCT, sitting on the European Task Force and several committees related to process development and commercialisation. She is also an industry representative for the Swedish national ATMP coordinating team and member of several scientific advisory boards for European societies and corporate entities.

where she investigated the factors influencing the growth and elaboration of neural processes during early development. In 2020, she moved to the School of Optometry and Vision Sciences, where her research has focused on deciphering the transcriptomic landscape of eye-like structures generated in vitro from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). This work has been conducted in collaboration with researchers from Osaka, Japan, where the first in-human transplants using these re-programmed stem cell constructs were recently performed, resulting in substantial improvements in vision for sight-impaired individuals.

Professor Thomas obtained his BDS Degree from Cardiff University, followed by a PhD at the University of Bristol in 1993, whilst undertaking a Wellcome Trust-funded, Clinical Research Fellowship.  Upon returning to Cardiff as a Registrar/Lecturer in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, Professor Thomas established his Research Goup, embarking on projects involving various aspects of oral and dermal wound healing and nanomedicine development.  This research has received >£15M in funding from  various sources worldwide, leading to numerous filed patents with industrial collaborators and therapy development through clinical trial assessment.

Presentation Title:  THE APPLICATION OF THE EPOXYTIGLIANE, EBC-1013, IN THE TREATMENT OF INFECTED WOUNDS: DEFINING THE ORTHOGONAL MECHANISMS OF ACTION

before completing a MSc in Tissue Engineering (2011) and a PhD in myofibroblast cell signalling mechanisms at Cardiff University (2016).  Between 2016-2021, Dr Woods undertook several Postdoctoral positions related to myofibroblast cell biology, scarring and drug development at the School of Dentistry and Welsh Kidney Research Unit, Cardiff University.  Her current research focuses on deciphering the cell signalling mechanisms involved in mediating epoxytigliane responses in chronic wound fibroblasts, with a particular interest in the effects of epoxytiglianes on downstream kinase signalling.

Presentation Title:  CHRONIC WOUND FIBROBLAST RESPONSIVENESS TO STIMULATED REPAIR MECHANISMS BY EPOXYTIGLIANES IS DEPENDENT ON FIBROBLAST KINOME PROFILES.

He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, with his PhD and postdoctoral career at the University of Cambridge and NIH Bethesda (USA) focused on the identification and characterisation of cell and molecular mechanism as potential targets for therapeutic intervention for skeletal diseases and disorders. During his industrial career Dr Horner has held numerous positions in multinationals and start-up companies, developing medical devices, biologics, pharmaceuticals and combination products predominantly for musculoskeletal diseases, skin diseases and trauma. He has been involved in the developed technologies from concept to full launch, identified and lead technical diligence and acquisition of external technologies from both SMEs and other global players into multinational organisations. Dr Horner was also part of the team that successfully developed a novel technology platform in the start-up space to acquisition by a global market leader. Additionally, he has driven market access and commercial success through evidence lead commercial strategies, worked closely with regulatory specialists to deliver compliant technical documentation to EU, US and Australian authorities. Recently he developed the clinical strategy for global market introduction and reimbursement (one clinical study is currently actively recruiting and another is currently under review (IDE-RCT), for a novel wound care technology developed as a start-up. Throughout his career, Dr Horner has worked cross-functionally with HCPs, marketing, sales, regulatory, clinical, market access and health economics, to develop integrated strategies to maximise the potential for commercial success be that product launch and sales or divestment to a larger commercial organisation.

Presentation Title: WHAT DOES MEDTECH LOOK FOR IN TERMS OF THE DEVELOPMENT AND COMMERCIALISATION OF NEW WOUND HEALING THERAPIES?