5th May 2021

Jellagen® Enhances Scientific Advisory Board with the Appointment of Professor Sheila MacNeil

Jellagen, a leader in advanced collagen biomaterials from marine sources, announces the appointment of Professor Sheila MacNeil to their Scientific Advisory Board. Sheila will join existing board members Professor Andrew Mearns Spragg, Dr Alex Pretsch, Dr Tim Morley, Dr Andy Weymann MD, Dr Mike Barbeck and Dr Serban San-Marina MD.

Professor Sheila MacNeil is Emeritus Professor of Tissue Engineering at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Sheffield and will bring a wealth of tissue engineering and translational expertise to support Jellagen’s existing Scientific Advisory Board.

Sheila’s research focuses on developing tissue engineering to benefit patients, alongside fundamental work to develop new understanding and tools in the area of tissue engineering. Her primary research interests are in tissue engineering of soft tissues – skin, oral mucosa, urethra and cornea, with a strong focus on translating research for clinical benefit. She also brings product translational expertise having developed the product Myskin™ which was clinically evaluated and developed commercially and has been available in the UK for patients with extensive skin loss due to burns injuries and to chronic non-healing ulcers.

Additionally, she has developed 3D tissue engineered models used to study a wide range of normal and abnormal conditions spanning wound healing, skin contracture, pigmentation, melanoma invasion, angiogenesis, bacterial infection and skin sensitisation.

Professor Andrew Mearns Spragg, Founder & CSO of Jellagen, comments:

“I am delighted with Sheila’s appointment. Sheila brings to our SAB an excellent combination of academic excellence combined with knowledge of product translation from the bench to the clinic.  We look forward to working with her together with our existing SAB members to help develop and refine Jellagen’s product development strategy and research goals. It’s an honour and a privilege to work with such a highly skilled and renowned Advisory Board.”
Professor Sheila MacNeil further added:

“I am looking forward to joining the Scientific Advisory Board and working with Andrew and other board members to explore the potential of jellfyfish collagen to tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Collagen is the mortar that holds cells together but it is far from a passive building material -and there is much to be explored.”