Dr Neill Turner

Post-Doctoral Research Associate

C3.214 Michael Smith Building

Faculty of Life Sciences

University of Manchester

Oxford Road

MANCHESTER  M13 9PT

Tel:     +44 (0) 161 275 5756

email:  neill.j.turner@manchester.ac.uk

Endothelialization is crucial to maintain the long-term patency of small-calibre prosthetic blood vessels where low flow rates and high peripheral resistance enhance the risks of thrombosis. However, seeding endothelial cells onto grafts surface has been challenging.

I am currently studying the endothelialisation of artificial vascular grafts for surgery. My particular interest is in the behaviour of endothelial cells under both acute and chronic shear stress. I am specifically focusing on the use of a novel hyaluronan based biomaterial (Hyaff-11) as a scaffold to support endothelial cells and on the use of recombinant Type VIII collagen as a substrate to enhance endothelial attachment.