PhD in Regenerative Medicine and Devices

The Centre for Regenerative Medicine and Devices aims to achieve pioneering, patient-driven treatments and technological innovation in regenerative medicine and medical devices.

Responding to some of the most recognised socio-economic challenges, the centre focuses on scientific knowledge, diagnostics and treatments based on regenerative medicine and devices in five main priority areas: neurodegenerative diseases and sensory dysfunctions, diabetes, wound healing, cardiovascular diseases and musculoskeletal diseases.

What we do

The Centre for Regenerative Medicine and Devices focuses its medical research expertise on major clinical conditions and developing treatments. Our research brings deep scientific knowledge, allowing breakthrough innovation across clinical applications and key enabling technologies, as well as developing the role of public and patient participation.

Who we work with

The widespread collaborative network established in recent years by the CRMD researchers makes the centre an international hub where researcher institutions, clinicians, companies, charities and policymakers can find a wide range of expertise and state-of-the-art facilities.

Clinical collaborations

The treatments developed by researchers at the Centre for Regenerative Medicine and Devices find their closest links to clinics through the practice of the University Leaf Hospital, Eastbourne, but also have links to the university’s hospitals and hospitals across Europe. At Leaf Hospital a large number of patients are treated for their foot ulcers every year providing benchmark knowledge about the process of healing and the use of wound dressings. Insights in the effect of biomaterials on the healing process in foot ulcers are obtained through a systematic study linking the wound features to the type of wound dressing used by the practitioner.

Business collaborations

Strong links with companies have led to the development of technologies currently undergoing industrial feasibility studies in all the main research areas. Specialised cell culture substrates for the pre-clinical handling of stem cells are under development in collaboration with Tissue Click Ltd. The exploitation potential of novel soybean-based wound dressing is currently pursued through Brighton Wound Care Ltd a partner company with Meilian Medical Technology, China. CRMD is a partner in EC funded projects together with the UK and European companies with a mission in tissue engineering, nanomedicine and biosensors.

Professional collaborations

Centre for Regenerative Medicine and Devices researchers are members and/or sit on the scientific advisory committees of scientific societies, charities and policymakers including the European Society for Biomaterials, the UK Society for Biomaterials, the ETP on Nanomedicine – Regenerative Medicine Group, the Orthopaedic Research UK, the Biomedical Applications Division – Biomaterials Committee, IOM3, London.

The centre is proud to host a number of visiting scientists as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students from all over the world. The scientific and cultural enrichment that both we and our guests enjoy is an invaluable asset for our future and that of our partners.

Your PhD at the University of Brighton will develop your professional skills as a researcher in your chosen discipline, and enable you to make your original contribution to knowledge, working alongside dedicated academics in a vibrant, supportive community.

The University of Brighton has a rich scholarly history, particularly in applied research. We pride ourselves on academic work that has a major public impact, on our innovative approaches to the generation and dissemination of knowledge, and our part in the progress of new and under-represented disciplines.

We have an enviable record of preparing students for their place in the wider world. Our PhD students benefit from an approach that recognises the value of rigorous research study and the transferable, high-level skillsets that are developed in the work towards a PhD thesis. We also offer our students the benefit of our strong connections to regional, national and international research networks, industry, public services and professional associations.

Our supportive environment will place you with an expert supervisory team, typically of two supervisors, and will embed your work within the research of specialist departments. Most students are introduced as members of several research communities; you will be based within a specialist disciplinary school and within focused research groups and/or Centres of Research and Enterprise Excellence (COREs). You'll also have opportunities to join students across the university through our Doctoral College and its training programmes.

We recognise doctoral research as the lifeblood of all universities; we welcome our PhD students as the next generation of researchers and scholars, who will continue the mission to generate new knowledge and address the global challenges that face us all.