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Tim WoodfieldResearch Professor

Rutherford Discovery Fellow 2012-2017

BE(Hons)(Cant) MASc(Tor) PhD(Twente)

Email tim.woodfield@otago.ac.nz

Tel +64 3 244 1138

@Tim_WoodfieldNZ

Professor Tim B. F. Woodfield, PhD is Professor of Regenerative Medicine in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery & Musculoskeletal Medicine at the University of Otago, New Zealand.  He leads the Christchurch Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering (CReaTE) Group and is Director of the University of Otago Centre for Bioengineering & Translational Health Technologies.

His research platform involves development of novel bioinks and bioresins, biofabrication, spheroid bioassembly and additive manufacturing of medical devices applied to regenerative medicine of cartilage and bone, advanced 3D in vitro tissue culture models, and high throughput screening.

Having trained in biomaterials and tissue engineering in North America and Europe, he has more than 170 publications (h-index 53) and received a number of awards including a prestigious Rutherford Discovery Fellowship from the Royal Society of New Zealand | Te Apārangi, and the University of Otago Research Gold Medal. He received the 2020 Research Excellence Award from the Australasian Society for Biomaterials & Tissue Engineering (ASBTE), and was awarded Fellow, Biomaterials Science & Engineering (FBSE) in 2020 by the International Union of Societies in Biomaterials Science and Engineering (IUSBSE).

He has been awarded over NZ$28 million in research funding from the Ministry of Business Innovation & Employment, Royal Society of New Zealand | Te Apārangi, New Zealand Health Research Council, AO Foundation, as well as the European Commission (EU-FP7).

He is the current President of the International Society for Biofabrication (ISBF), former President of the Australasian Society for Biomaterials & Tissue Engineering (ASBTE). He is a member of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society Asia Pacific (TERMIS-AP), an Executive Editorial Board Member for Biofabrication journal as well as Editorial Board Member for Advanced Healthcare Materials, APL Bioengineering and Associate Editor for Frontiers in Bioengineering & Biotechnology.

Inaugural Professorial Lecture

Roles

  • Principal Investigator, Christchurch Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering (CReaTE) Group
  • Director, University of Otago Centre for Bioengineering & Nanomedicine
  • Theme Leader, Regenerative Medicine – University of Otago Centre for Bioengineering & Nanomedicine
  • Adjunct Associate Professor, Institute of Health & Biomedical Innovation (IHBI), Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
  • Adjunct Senior Fellow, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
  • Principal Investigator, Centre of Research Excellence in Medical Technologies
  • Associate Investigator, Maurice Wilkins Centre for Molecular Diversity

Professional affiliations

Professional interests

Orthopaedic Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

  • Stem cell and scaffold-based regeneration of cartilage and bone
  • Bio-fabrication and advanced bio-ink/bio-resins
  • Orthopaedic medical device development

Christchurch Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering (CReATE) Group website
Regenerative Medicine website - Centre for Bioengineering & Nanomedicine

logo - MedTech CoRElogo - Royal Society of New Zealandlogo - New Zealand Orthopaedic Association (NZOA)logo - Ministry of Business, Innovations & Employmentlogo - hrclogo - The MacDiarmid Institutelogo - Maurice Wilkins Centre

Publications

Prados-Martin, L., Tran, H. A., Mota, C., Jang, J., Zenobi-Wong, M., Daly, A. C., … Woodfield, T., … Lim, K. S. (2026). Advances in light-based 3D bioprinting. Biofabrication. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1088/1758-5090/ae7208 Journal - Research Article

Wise, J. A., Currie, M. J., Woodfield, T. B. F., Lim, K. S., & Phillips, E. (2026). Gelatin-methacryloyl hydrogel stiffness influences epithelial-mesenchymal transition in MCF7 but not MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells in 3D culture. Biology Open, 15(2), bio062242. doi: 10.1242/bio.062212 Journal - Research Article

Longoni, A., Major, G. S., Arnold, S., Tomkins, S., Spessot, E., Loeffler, S., … Harte, J., Kemp, R., … Hooper, G. J., Woodfield, T. B. F., Kieser, D. C., & Lim, K. S. (2026). Characterization of an injectable poly(vinyl alcohol)-gelatin hydrogel for growth factor delivery in an orthopedic application. Advanced Healthcare Materials. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1002/adhm.202504224 Journal - Research Article

Norberg, A. E., Yavitt, F. M., Bakirci, E., Lim, K., Woodfield, T. B. F., & Lindberg, G. C. J. (2025). Spatial patterning of modular gelatin-peroxide microspheres in melt-electrowritten scaffolds provides controlled oxygen generation and mitigates hypoxia and cytotoxicity. Advanced Healthcare Materials. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1002/adhm.202503713 Journal - Research Article

Woodfield, T. (2025, September). Bioprinting of 3D in vitro organoid models for investigating tissue fusion in healthy and diseased microenvironments. Verbal presentation at the 35th Queenstown Molecular Biology Meeting (QMB), Christchurch, New Zealand. Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

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