The application of our rapidly expanding knowledge about stem cells will revolutionise the future of medicine, says Jon Frampton, Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Director of the Stem Cell Centre at the University of Birmingham.

His Centre covers a wide range of research areas from neural stem cells, skeletal muscle stem cells, tooth stem cells and germ cells derived from embryonic stem cells to studies on 3D materials for tissue engineering.  Complementing these research efforts, the Centre also includes a number of members of the School of Social Sciences who help to provide a broad perspective on social and ethical issues associated with stem cell research.

Of his own major research interests, Professor Frampton focuses on the regulation of stem cell behaviour in health and disease.  In particular, I am interested in blood stem cells, both normal and those related to leukaemia, although other studies encompass a number of adult stem cell types, for example, those giving rise to bone and fat and the resident stem cells in the heart.

Before coming to Birmingham, he ran research groups in the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg (1988-1995) and the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Oxford (1995-2002).