Professor Daniel J Kelly

Professor Daniel Kelly holds the Chair of Tissue Engineering at Trinity College Dublin. The goal of his laboratory is to develop novel tissue engineering and 3D bioprinting strategies to regenerate damaged and diseased musculoskeletal tissues. To date he has published over 220 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and has successfully supervised over 25 PhD students to completion. He is the recipient of five European Research Council awards (Starter grant 2010; Consolidator grant 2015; Proof of Concept grant 2017, 2023; Advanced grant 2021), which have led to the development of new single stage strategies for bone and cartilage repair and innovations in 3D (bio)printing for the regeneration of musculoskeletal tissues. He is also a co-founder of Altach Biomedical, which is pioneering the development of extracellular matrix derived scaffolds to regenerate damaged knee joints. Other notable recognitions of Prof Kelly"s academic work include being awarded the Science Foundation Ireland Industry Partnership Award (2019), the Silver Medal from the Section of Bioengineering of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland (2022) and the mid-term career award from the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International (TERMIS) EU society (2023).

  Arthritis   Bioengineering   Biomaterials   Biomechanics   Biomechanics, Biomedical Engineering   Biomolecules, Bioplastics, Biopolymers   Bioreactors   Cardiovascular System   Computational Biology   Computer-Aided Engineering   Mathematical modelling   Mechanical Engineering   Mechanics   Medical Devices Engineering   Solid Mechanics   Stem Cell   STEM-CELLS   STENTS   Tissue Engineering

Bone and cartilage tissue engineering My lab has demonstrated that it is possible to engineer zonal tissues such as articular cartilage by recapitulating the gradients in regulatory signals that during development and skeletal maturation are believed to drive spatial changes in stem cell differentiation and tissue organization (10.1371/journal.pone.0060764). We have demonstrated how complex tissues, such as the bone-cartilage interface, can be regenerated by designing tissue engineering strategies that recapitulate aspects of the normal long bone developmental process (10.1016/j.actbio.2012.11.008). We have also shown that it is possible to scale-up such developmentally inspired processes to regenerate large bone defects (10.1016/j.biomaterials.2018.01.057), or tissue engineer entire new bones (10.1089/biores.2015.0014) or biological implants for whole joint resurfacing (10.1016/j.biomaterials.2022.121750). To extend the utility of this strategy, we have used 3D bioprinting to engineer scaled-up hypertrophic cartilage templates for bone organ engineering (10.1002/adhm.201600182) and large bone defect repair (10.1016/j.actbio.2022.07.037). We have also used phenotypically distinct microtissues within microphysiological models of bone (10.1088/1758-5090/acd6be) and as biological building blocks for the biofabrication of osteochondral grafts for synovial joint regeneration (10.1016/j.biomaterials.2022.121750). Single stage strategies for bone and cartilage repair In 2010 I was awarded a European Research Council (ERC) starter grant to develop novel stem cell based therapies to regenerate damaged articular cartilage. To realise the goals of this project, we first developed a range of decellularized extracellular matrix (ECM) derived scaffolds for articular cartilage (10.1016/j.actbio.2014.05.030 & 10.1016/j.mtbio.2022.100343), bone (10.22203/eCM.v033a10) and osteochondral defect repair (10.1016/j.biomaterials.2018.09.044 & 10.1016/j.actbio.2022.03.009), and have tested these scaffolds in relevant pre-clinical animal models. We have also demonstrated that the source tissue of ECM scaffolds plays a key role in regulating the phenotype of both macrophages and skeletal stem cells (10.1016/j.regen.2021.100041). We recently completed an ERC proof-of-concept to address challenges with the clinical translation of this project (10.1016/j.mtbio.2022.100343), and have recently established a TCD spin-out company (in partnership with NLC Health) to move this technology into the clinic. 3D (bio)printing for the regeneration of musculoskeletal tissues In recent years we have utilised emerging biofabrication and bioprinting strategies to engineer prevascularised implants for bone repair (10.1016/j.actbio.2021.03.003) and structurally organised articular cartilage (10.1016/j.biomaterials.2018.12.028 & 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2022.121405) and meniscus tissue (10.1016/j.actbio.2022.12.047). As part of my ERC consolidator grant, we modified such inks for gene (10.1016/j.jconrel.2019.03.006 & 10.1089/ten.tea.2016.0498) and growth factor (10.1016/j.actbio.2021.04.016 & 10.1038/s41598-017-17286-1) delivery. Furthermore, we bioprinted implants containing spatiotemporally defined patterns of growth factors and demonstrated that printed constructs containing a gradient of VEGF, coupled with spatially defined BMP-2 localization and release kinetics, accelerated large bone defect healing 10.1126/sciadv.abb5093). We have also used 3D printing techniques to produce fibre-reinforced cartilaginous templates, and assessed the efficacy of such constructs in a caprine model of osteochondral defect repair (10.1016/j.actbio.2020.05.040). We have also demonstrated how emerging additive manufacturing techniques such as melt electrowriting (10.1016/j.addma.2022.102998) can be used to produce scaffolds capable of directing angiogenesis and the regeneration of large bone defects (10.1088/1758-5090/ac88a1 & 10.1002/adhm.202302057).