Dr Wa'el Kafienah
Lecturer in Stem Cell Biology
School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine,
University of Bristol, Medical Sciences Building,
Bristol, BS8 1TD
phone: +44 (0)117 33 12096 (internal 12096)
email: w.z.kafienah@bristol.ac.uk
group: Embryonic stem cells
Research interests
Background
Dr Wael Kafienah leads a team focused on understanding the molecular biology of stem cells for applications in skeletal tissue engineering. He has many years of experience in the UK and US developing methods for cartilage tissue engineering using stem cells. That work lead to significant public (see BBC news story “New hope for arthritis sufferers”) and scientific interest (Arthritis and Rheumatism Journal) and earned him the prestigious Garrod Prize 2008 awarded by the British Society of Rheumatology. The team is building on this work by investigating the more versatile pluripotent stem cells. Dr Kafienah holds 3 patents that resulted recently in a University of Bristol spin-out company (Azellon Cell Therapeutics). He is currently an executive committee member of the British Society for Matrix Biology.
Specific research interests
- Pharmacological regulation of adult and pluripotent stem cells for cartilage repair and heart disease
- Cartilage tissue engineering using pluripotent stem cells
- Novel biomaterials for tissue engineering and drug delivery
- Endogenous repair of damaged cartilage
- Bacterial-stem cell interactions in osteomyelitis
Selected publications
- Cui, Y-X., Kafienah, W., Suleiman, M-S. and Ascione, R. A new methodological sequence to expand and transdifferentiate human umbilical cord blood derived CD133+ cells into a cardiomyocyte-like phenotype. Stem Cell Reviews and Reports (In Press).
- Painter, T. and Kafienah, W. (2011) Cartilage tissue engineering using human embryonic stem cells. In Comprehensive Biotechnology, Vol 5: Medical Biotechnology and Healthcare, Section 5: Regenerative Medical Technology; Elsevier Publishing.
- Hollander, A.P., Dickinson, S.C. and Kafienah, W. (2010) Stem cells and cartilage development: complexities of a simple tissue. Stem Cells 28, 1992-1996.
- Pabbruwe, M.B., Kafienah, W., Tarlton, J.F., Mistry, S., Fox, D.J., Hollander, A.P. (2010) Repair of meniscal cartilage white zone tears using a stem cell/collagen-scaffold implant. Biomaterials 31, 2583-2591.
- Pabbruwe, M.B., Esfandiari, E., Kafienah, W., Tarlton, J. and Hollander, A.P. (2009) Induction of cartilage integration by a chondrocyte-collagen scaffold. Biomaterials 30, 4277-86.
- Kafienah, W. (2008) Towards Cartilage Repair. In: Horizons in Medicine, vol 20. Editor, Prof. P. Matheison. Royal College of Physicians of London Publications.
- Kafienah, W., Cheung, F.L., Sims, T., Martin, I., Miot, S., Von Ruhland, C., Roughley, P.J., Hollander, A.P. (2008) Lumican inhibits collagen deposition in tissue engineered cartilage. Matrix Biology 27, 526-534.
- Kafienah, W. Are stem cells the answer to treating osteoarthritis (OA)? An online editorial for the 2007 National Knowledge Week on Osteoarthritis, NHS Library for Health, UK.
- Kafienah, W., Mistry, S., Perry, M.J., Politopoulou, G. and Hollander, A.P. (2007) Pharmacological regulation of adult stem cells: chondrogenesis can be induced using a synthetic inhibitor of the retinoic acid receptor. Stem Cells 25, 2460-2468.
- Kafienah, W., Mistry, S., Dickinson, S.C., Sims, T.J., Learmonth, I. and Hollander A.P. (2007) Three-dimensional cartilage tissue engineering using adult stem cells from osteoarthritis patients. Arthritis. Rheum. 56, 177-187.
- Kafienah, W., Mistry, S., Williams, C. and Hollander, A.P. (2006) Nucleostemin is a marker of proliferating stromal stem cells in adult human bone marrow. Stem Cells 24, 1113-1120.
View all publications held on the University of Bristol's IRIS database