Rate My Professor Hannah Levis

Dr Hannah Levis, PhD FHEA, is Reader in Ophthalmic Bioengineering in the Department of Eye and Vision Sciences at the University of Liverpool. Her research focuses on the development of novel tissue engineering and regenerative medicine strategies for the repair of the eye in disease and disorder. She studies ocular cells in their native niche to understand key interactions with neighbouring cells and the microenvironment, aiming to create optimal culture environments for cell expansion, functional biomaterials for delivery, biomimetic tissues, and in vitro models of ocular disease. Primary specializations include tissue engineering of the cornea—covering epithelium, stroma, and endothelium—and cell therapies for diabetic retinopathy, such as investigating circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) for vessel repair and developing a bioengineered corneal stroma for transplantation.

Dr Levis has secured substantial research funding, including a £2.1 million Medical Research Council Developmental Pathway grant (2024–2027) to develop a contact lens-based 'bandage' for transferring corneal epithelial cells to treat persistent epithelial defects, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Liverpool and the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service. Other notable awards encompass MRC funding for bio-synthetic corneal endothelial grafts (2022–2025), Diabetes UK support for EPCs in diabetic retinopathy (2019–2021), and multiple grants from Fight for Sight. Her key publications include "Rapid tissue engineering of biomimetic human corneal limbal crypts with 3D niche architecture" (2013), "Plastic compressed collagen as a biomimetic substrate for human limbal epithelial cell culture" (2010), "A comparative study on different Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty graft preparation techniques" (2018), "Poly-ε-lysine based hydrogels as synthetic substrates for the expansion of corneal endothelial cells for transplantation" (2019), and "Tissue Engineering the Cornea: The Evolution of RAFT" (2015). She contributes to teaching through modules like Structural Biomaterials and Communication and Study Skills for the Life Sciences, and supervises PhD theses on retinal models, corneal biomechanics, and stem cells for macular degeneration. Professionally, she is a member of the Tissue and Cell Engineering Society since 2010 and ARVO since 2009, has given invited presentations at the German Society of Ophthalmology Congress (2013, 2015), and serves as a MerseySTEM Ambassador.