David C. Hay

David C. Hay, PhD is Professor of Cellular Reprogramming at the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Regenerative Medicine, where he leads a research program at the intersection of stem cell biology, organ-on-chip technology, and cancer modeling. He is internationally recognized for pioneering pluripotent stem cell–derived organoid platforms that recapitulate human thyroid tissue biology, enabling drug discovery and mechanistic studies in thyroid cancer and related endocrine disorders. His approach bridges developmental biology and oncology in ways that traditional in vitro models cannot replicate. Professor Hay's group developed one of the first robust protocols for generating functional thyroid follicular cells from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), and subsequently used these platforms to model differentiated thyroid cancer and the molecular determinants of radioiodine responsiveness. These systems provide physiologically relevant tools for studying cancer-relevant signaling pathways, drug resistance mechanisms, and gene expression programs in thyroid tissue. His laboratory has collaborated extensively with thyroid oncologists to translate organoid findings into clinically testable hypotheses. Beyond thyroid cancer, Professor Hay has made seminal contributions to human hepatocyte and cardiac cell derivation from iPSCs, with applications in drug toxicity testing and liver disease modeling. He has authored over 180 peer-reviewed publications, holds multiple patents on stem cell differentiation methods, and serves on the editorial boards of major journals in regenerative medicine and cancer biology.