Professor Sheila MacNeil

Sheila is Emeritus Professor of Tissue Engineering with expertise in tissue engineering of soft tissues (skin, oral mucosa, urethra and cornea) with a focus on translating research to the clinic. She has over 550 peer-reviewed articles and an h-index of 57.

Since 1992 she has worked with clinicians in Sheffield, delivering autologous keratinocytes to burns patients and developed and commercialised improved delivery of skin cells to patients with MySkin™ and Cryoskin™ (autologous and allogeneic cell therapy for wound healing). In the last decade she has focussed on three translational project areas. The first with NHS Urologist Professor Chris Chapple in Sheffield to develop tissue engineered oral mucosa for reconstruction of urethral strictures and to develop alternative materials for support of the weakened tissues of the pelvic floor. The second project is developing cell delivery membranes for corneal defects working with colleagues in India. The third project is developing novel biomaterials to promote angiogenesis in chronic wounds working with Dr Muhammed Yar in Pakistan.

The research collaboration with India has led to a simplification in the treatment of corneal scarring which has reduced the cost by 90% and most importantly increased accessibility of this technique to patients. This has led to a change in clinical practice in India and has attracted considerable publicity.

She received the UK Society of Biomaterials President’s medal for her contributions to Biomaterials in both the UK and overseas in September 2014 and the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) Chapman Medal for Biomedical Materials and Biomaterials Innovation in 2018.

Sheila retired in September 2018 but remains research active.