Researcher biography

Dr Abbas Shafiee is a tissue engineering & regenerative medicine scientist interested in translational cell-based and tissue engineering strategies to treat human diseases.

Dr Shafiee completed his PhD in Professor Kiarash Khosrotehrani's laboratory on stem cell biology. His research career during his PhD had key contributions to delineating endothelial niche and vascular stem cells in the human placental tissues, including the seminal discovery of an entirely new stem cell population, coined as 'Meso-Endothelial Bipotent Progenitor' and the identification of key driver signatures for endothelial and bipotential progenitor function (Stem Cell Reports 2018; The FASEB Journal 2017; Stem Cells 2016; Stem Cells Translational Medicine 2015).

In 2016, he joined Distinguished Professor Dietmar Hutmacher's team and conducted multiple projects on cancer and bone tissue engineering. Dr Shafiee has developed innovative tissue engineered models intersecting concepts from stem cell biology, cancer, and tissue engineering to study species-specific cancer bone metastasis at an unprecedented level of detail. The results of his research have been published in: International Journal of Cancer 2018; Cancers 2018; Biomaterials 2018; Bone Research 2019; Biomaterials 2019; Applied Materials Today 2020; Biomaterials 2020; and Advanced Therapeutics 2020. Utilizing the tissue engineering concept, he was able to better understand the mechanisms of human cancer bone metastasis. Additionally, he was successful in obtaining project grants, including a project grants from Cooperative Research Centers (CRC), and developed a biomimetically designed scaffolds and investigated the interactions of multipotent mesenchymal stem/stromal cell and skin progenitors with 3D printed scaffolds. The application of 3D printed constructs in acute wound models decreased wound contracture and led to a significantly improved skin regeneration.

Dr Shafiee joined Herston Biofabrication Institute (HBI, MNHHS) in 2020 and started a research program to develop, implement, and evaluate the applications of 3D printing, scanning, cell therapies, and biofabrication technologies in skin wound settings. Using 3D printing and stem/progenitor cell delivery he could develop new approaches to enhances physiological wound closure with reduced scar tissue formation (Biomaterials 2021, Small 2021, Advanced Healthcare Materials 2021, Advanced Healthcare Materials 2022). Dr Shafiee is part of a national program, in collaboration with scientists from Curtin University, UWA and UOW, aiming to develop 3D bioprinting technology to treat skin wounds (funded by MRFF, NHMRC). Dr Shafiee has supervised over 10 master and PhD students. Honours, Masters and PhD projects are available, please feel free to contact him.