Prof Phil Stephens
Research Theme
Tissue Engineering & Reparative Dentistry
Research Group
Wound Biology Group
Repair and Regeneration in the Oral Mucosa
Research Interests
Differential tissue repair (scarless, scarring, non-healing), tissue engineering, fibroblasts, stem/progenitor cells, ageing, biomaterials, cell imaging, wound microbiology, development of alternatives to animal model systems.
Selected Publications
Davies LC, Locke M, Webb RDJ, Roberts JT, Langley M, Thomas DW, Archer CW, Stephens P (2010). A Multipotent Neural Crest-Derived Progenitor Cell Population is Resident Within the Oral Mucosa Lamina Propria. Stem Cells Dev [Epub ahead of print]
Enoch S, Wall IB, Peake M, Davies L, Farrier J, Giles P, Baird D, Kipling D, Price P, Moseley R, Thomas DW, Stephens P (2009). Increased Oral Fibroblast Lifespan is Telomerase-Independent. J Dent Res 88: 916-21
Wall IB, Moseley R, Baird D, Kipling D, Giles P, Laffafian I, Price P, Thomas DW, Stephens P (2008). Fibroblast dysfunction is a key factor in the non-healing of chronic venous leg ulcers. J Invest Dermatol 128:2526-40.
Meran S, Thomas DW, Stephens P, Enoch S, Martin J, Steadman R, Phillips A (2008). Hyaluronan facilitates TGF-beta 1 mediated fibroblast proliferation. J Biol Chem 283:6530-45
Selected Projects
Probing the mechanical control of stem cell fate through the development of novel, non-invasive imaging technologies (funded by the EPSRC)
Oral mucosal progenitor cells, preferential wound healing outcome and immunomodulation (funded by the WORD)
The development of in vitro alternatives to animal wound model systems (funded by the NC3Rs/MRC)