astronomy

Sheila MacNeil

Sheila MacNeil is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sheila MacNeil rather than just read about it. In short: Sheila MacNeil is a Professor of Tissue Engineering at the University of Sheffield. She works alongside NHS clinicians to use tissue engineered skin to benefit patients with burns, chronic ulcers and those recovering from surgery.

Key takeaways

Sheila MacNeil belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sheila MacNeil to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sheila MacNeil from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sheila MacNeil is a Professor of Tissue Engineering at the University of Sheffield. She works alongside NHS clinicians to use tissue engineered skin to benefit patients with burns, chronic ulcers and those recovering from surgery. She developed MySkin, skin bandages that are used to treat burns in 11 of 13 major UK burns units.

Early life and education MacNeil studied physiology at the University of Aberdeen. She earned a PhD in the endocrinology of manic depression from the University of Sheffield. Here she explored why certain rare earth metals can benefit patients with manic depression.

Research and career In 1992, MacNeil began to develop cytokeratin for patients with extensive burns in a Sheffield Hospital. She joined the University of Sheffield in 2000. MacNeil founded the Sheffield spinout company CellTran in 2000, and remained as Director until 2007. CellTran was taken over by York Pharma in 2008. In 2004 MacNeil and colleagues developed MySkin, living bandages made from healthy skin cells. They went on to explore how aminopropionitrile in sweet peas could be bound with polymers, and created CryoSkin. They were awarded over £2,500,000 in funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. The products were voted the Biomedial Product of the Year in 2008. MacNeil was appointed Deputy Director of the University of Sheffield Kroto Research Institute in 2005. She established the university's Bachelors and master's degrees in bioengineering in 2011, which were accredited in 2014. She is part of the University of Leeds Doctoral Training Centre for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine. She won the 2014 President's Prize from the UK Society for Biomaterials. Alongside acting as Director for Interdisciplinary Programmes at the university, she continues to lead on innovations in healthcare. Working with Chris Chapple at the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, MacNeil is developing biomaterials to repair tissues in the pelvic floor. They are also working on tissue engineered buccal mucosa to help scarring in the Urethra. She has worked with Wellcome Trust Affordable Healthcare for India programme to develop cell delivery membranes for corneal defects. MacNeil serves as an advisor for the New Zealand company Upside Biotechnologies. In 2017 she identified that certain sugars encourage blood vessel formation and can aid wound healing. She developed a new material for vaginal mesh which could release oestrogen and assist healing. She has over 464 peer-reviewed publications and has an H-index of 49. In 2017 she was awarded the Medical Research Council Suffrage Science Award. In 2018 Professor MacNeil was awarded the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining Chapman Medal, an award which is presented for "distinguished research in the field of biomedical materials, particularly with respect to biomaterials innovation."

External links University of Sheffield profile

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sheila MacNeil

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sheila MacNeil claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sheila MacNeil before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sheila MacNeil ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sheila MacNeil

In research: Sheila MacNeil appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sheila MacNeil in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sheila MacNeil is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Academics of the University of Sheffield, Alumni of the University of Aberdeen, Alumni of the University of Sheffield, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sheila MacNeil outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sheila MacNeil in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sheila MacNeil means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sheila MacNeil out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sheila MacNeil in simple terms?

Why does Sheila MacNeil matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sheila MacNeil?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sheila MacNeil.