Mark Eastwood
  1. Current research activities

    2. At the Centre for Tissue Engineering Research we are concentrating on cardiovascular tissue engineering. We have developed a range of equipments to impart mechanical forces as cues to guide cell orientation and differentiation. My laboratory is equipped with the Culture Force Monitor range of equipments additionally we have developed the Multi Cue Bioreactor (MCB) which enables us to impart pulsatile, axial, longitudinal and fluid shear stresses to constructs whilst under long term culture conditions. We have just received a large grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to fund a post doc and capital equipment for a project to differentiate stem cells into cardiocytes using the MCB. Fibrosis and wound healing are other areas in which we have a keen interest, particularly in relation to scleroderma.

  2. Keywords

    3. Cardiovascular tissue engineering, fibroblasts, collagen, biodegradable scaffolds, origins of contraction, wound healing, fibrosis.

  3. End-user applications

    • Pediatric cardiovascular patients
    • Surgeons of all disciplines
    • Companies involved in tissue engineering
    • The millions of patients world wide who require organ donation that is currently in short supply

  4. Key publications

    5. I. McCulloch A, Harris A, Sarraf C, and Eastwood M ‘A new Multi-Cue Bioreactor (M-CB) for tissue engineering of cardiovascular samples under physiological conditions’. In press Tissue Engineering 2004
    II. Sarraf CE, Harris AB, McCulloch AD and Eastwood M ‘Heart valve and arterial tissue engineering’. Cell Proliferation. 2003 Oct;36(5): 241-254
    III. Sarraf CE, Harris AB, McCulloch AD and Eastwood M ‘Tisssue engineering of biological cardiovascular system surrogates:mechanical force to bioreactor’ Heart Lung and Circulation 2002;11:142-150
    IV. Eastwood M, Mudera V, McGrouther DA and Brown RA. ‘The effect of precise mechanical loading on fibroblast populaterd collagen lattices: Morphological changes’ Cell-Motil-cytoskel. 1998:6;157-166
    V. Shi-wen X, Denton CP, Eastwood M, Black CM, Leask A and Abraham D. ‘Endothelin -1 promotes the ability of normal lung fibroblasts to contract a collagen matrix through a P13 kinase/Akt-dependant mechanism: Implications for scar formation in fibrosis. In press Mol Biol Cell 2004

  5. Outreach activities

    6. Broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live

  6. Key organisation membership

    7. None as Yet

  7. Early career researcher?

    8. No.

  8. Young investigator?

    9. No.

  9. Skills and expertise

    • Interpretation of cellular mechanotransduction of forces
    • Design of equipment to impart and detect physiological forces
    • Finite Element Analysis

  10. Specialist equipment and infrastructure

    • Multi Cue Bioreactor
    • Tensioning Culture Force Monitor
    • Culture Force Monitor
    • Laser Confocal microscope
    • Scanning and Transmission Electron microscope
    • Full tissue culture, histology, etc.

  11. Contact Details 

    Doctor Mark Eastwood
    Address: Department: School of Biosciences University of Westminster
    115 New Cavendish St, London
    Country: United Kingdom
    Phone: +44 207 911 5013
    Fax: +44 207 911 5087
    Email: eastwood@wmin.ac.uk

© 2004

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