Role
Lívia Santos is a Senior Lecturer in Mechanobiology and Tissue Engineering, School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University (NTU). Her research focuses on developing micro-physiological models of muscle, heart and bone to better understand tissue regeneration, ageing and exercise. She leads the Master in Research module, Sports Research project and contributes to several undergraduate modules including Nutrition and Metabolism.
Career overview
Lívia Santos joined NTU in 2016 as an Independent Research Fellow in Musculoskeletal Biology after extensive post-doctoral training at Professor Rui Reis’ lab, European Institute of Excellence on Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Portugal and Professor Dame Molly Stevens’ lab, Imperial College London, UK.
She joined the European Institute of Excellence on Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine to create novel magnetically actuated biomaterials for tendon healing and help develop platelet lysates-based biomaterials for periodontal regeneration. Before this, she joined Imperial College London to investigate the effect of extracellular stiffness on bone angiogenesis after receiving a highly prestigious Intra-European Marie Curie Fellowship (Marie Curie actions FP7). In this period she also helped characterise the genetic cargo of microvesicles shed by bone cells using miRNA PCR arrays. While an active member, Prof Stevens' group received the prizes Research Group of the Year 2014 and Best European Research Group Led by PI Under 40s. Lívia obtained a PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering in 2008 from the University of Minho, Portugal. During her PhD, she extensively investigated the surface properties of silicone and silicone-hydrogel contact lens materials and their bacterial interactions.
Research areas
Lívia’s research group envisions improving health and medical research using micro-physiological models and avoiding animals or animal-derived products whenever possible. The group combines tissue engineering, bioreactors, and omics approaches including RNA-seq and LC-MSMS e.g., to decipher at a cellular and molecular level how exercise benefits our bones or muscles as we grow older. Some recent publications can be found here: Modelling Skeletal Muscle Ageing and Repair In Vitro & Multiomic analysis of stretched osteocytes reveal processes and signalling linked to bone regeneration and cancer
Recently, we invented a technology that allows upscaling the manufacture of engineered muscle and heart tissue aiming to improve drug discoveries and regenerative medicine.
Opportunities exist to carry out postgraduate research toward a PhD in the areas identified above. Further information may be obtained on the NTU Research Degrees website.
External activity
- Invited lecture, Engineered tissues for regenerative medicine and drug discovery under the scope of the prestigious program internationalisation@home, KU Leuven, Belgium
- Oral presentation, A high-throughput muscle model for sarcopenia research. Animal Free Research UK Annual Meeting, Cambridge
- Article for The Conversation, Exercise could help broken bones heal faster – here’s how (theconversation.com)
- Seminar on Exercise and biomaterials in tissue regeneration, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Sheffield
- Invited talk, Exercise and bone health, Pint of Science 2022, University of Nottingham
- Seminar, Acellular biomaterials in tissue regeneration, Orthopaedics, Trauma and Sports Medicine, Medical School, QMC, Nottingham
- Invited talk, Biological assessment of magnetically actuated biomaterials, 1st International Symposium for Women Researchers on Advanced Science and Technology, Kyushu Institute for Technology, Fukuoka, Japan
Dr Santos is a review editor of the journal Frontier Biomaterials.
Sponsors and collaborators
Funding
- NTU (£35,000). An innervated tissue-engineered for regenerative medicine, ageing research and drug discovery (PI), Nottingham, UK
- Preclinical assessment of osteoarthritic joints at micro and nano-structure level, funded by Anglia Ruskin University (Co-I), UK
- DTA/COFUND PhD Studentship (Director of Studies), Nottingham UK.
- 3 NTU Vice-chancellor PhD Studentships (Supervisor), Nottingham, UK
- NTU (£35,000). Modelling and emulating 3D multi-tissue interactions by microfluidic chip technology (PI), Nottingham, UK
- NTU (£14,000). New Biomaterials in Tendon Healing (Co-Investigator), Nottingham, UK
- Marie Curie Actions, FP7 (€209,000). Individual Intra-European Marie Curie Fellowship. Imperial College London, London UK
Publications
Selected publications:
1.Civil R et al. P1NP and β-CTX-1 responses to a prolonged, continuous running bout in young healthy adult males: a systematic review with individual participant data meta-analysis. Sports Medicine 2023;9:85. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40798-023-00628-x
2.Tarum J, et al. Modelling Skeletal Muscle Ageing and Repair In Vitro. Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine 2023:2023:1-15. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/9802235
3.Mathews J, et al. Carnosine increases insulin-stimulated glucose uptake and reduces methylglyoxal-modified proteins in type-2 diabetic human skeletal muscle cells. Amino Acids (2023). DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-022-03230-9
4. Santos L, et al. Multiomic analysis of stretched osteocytes reveals processes and signalling linked to bone regeneration and cancer. npj Regenerative Medicine 2021:6;32. DOI:10.1038/s41536-021-00141-3
5. Santos L, et al. Insulin stimulates β-alanine uptake in skeletal muscle cells in vitro. Amino Acids. 2021;53:1763–1766. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-021-03090-9
6. Goncalves L, et al. Insulin does not stimulate β-alanine transport into human skeletal muscle. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol. 2020;318:C777-C786. DOI:10.1152/ajpcell.00550.2019
7. Santos L, et al. In vitro and in vivo assessment of magnetically actuated biomaterials and prospects in tendon healing. Nanomedicine 2016;11;1107-1122. DOI:10.2217/nnm-2015-0014
8. Santos L, et al. Extracellular stiffness modulates the expression of functional proteins and growth factors in endothelial cells. Advanced Healthcare Materials 2015;4:2056–2063. DOI:10.1002/adhm.201500338
9. Santos L et al. Harnessing magnetic-mechano actuation in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. Trends in Biotechnology 2015;33:41-49 (IF: 19.5) DOI:10.1016/j.tibtech.2015.06.006
10. Pedro S, et al. Platelet Lysate-Loaded Photocrosslinkable Hyaluronic Acid Hydrogels for Periodontal Endogenous Regenerative Technology. ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering 2017 3 (7), 1359-1369. DOI: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.6b00508
11. Nair R, et al. Extracellular vesicles derived from preosteoblasts influence embryonic stem cell differentiation. Stem Cells Dev. 2014 Jul 15;23(14):1625-35. DOI: 10.1089/scd.2013.0633.
Press expertise
- Regenerative medicine
- Exercise and stem/ bone cells
- Bone ageing
Course(s) I teach on
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|COURSE
Sport Science
https://www.ntu.ac.uk/course/sport-science