Board-certified plastic surgeon and clinical associate professor Mr Tunc Tiryaki has spent much of his career working at the intersection of clinical research and practical application within regenerative aesthetics. 

His perspective is shaped not only by innovation, but by longevity in the field – having worked with regenerative concepts long before they became part of mainstream aesthetic discourse. 

With early experience in molecular biology, his work has consistently focused on one central question: how to restore the body’s declining regenerative capacity, rather than compensate for its loss. 

“I grew up with science”  

Mr Tiryaki’s path into medicine was shaped early. “My father was a professor of molecular biology at Istanbul University,” he explains, so becoming a doctor was a natural step.  

After qualifying and specialising in plastic surgery, he completed subspecialty training at NYU in New York in 2000. It was there that he encountered early anti-ageing concepts, at a time when longevity and regenerative medicine were still largely theoretical. 

On returning to Turkey, Mr Tiryaki joined his father and a senior partner to establish one of the world’s first anti-ageing and regenerative medicine clinics in 2003. “There was no roadmap then,” he says. “We were building the field as we went.” 

He has since established the London Regenerative Institute, designed to offer a 360-degree approach to patients’ health while providing training and fellowships for other practitioners, and the renowned Tiryaki Clinic in Istanbul, while also practising from the Cadogan Clinic in London. 

“When you can turn science into clinical application, everything changes” 

What followed was not marketing-led innovation, but iterative clinical work informed directly by laboratory research. Early projects included autologous fibroblast cultures combined with hyaluronic acid, allowing Mr Tiryaki to explore how cellular therapies might be translated safely into practice. 

“I had a rare advantage,” he reflects. “A basic science team from my father’s laboratory, and a clinical team applying those ideas directly.” 

This dual access accelerated his understanding of stem cells, tissue regeneration, and how emerging concepts could be responsibly introduced into patient care. 

“Regeneration is not the same thing as wound healing” 

One of the most consistent lessons from Mr Tiryaki’s career has been the need to distinguish regeneration from repair. 

“In the simplest sense, regenerative medicine means restoring the body’s own regenerative power,” he explains. “Ageing and chronic disease happen because that capacity declines.” 

In aesthetic medicine, he believes this distinction is often misunderstood. “Many technologies create injury and rely on wound healing. That is not regeneration,” he says. “True regeneration is about increasing tissue capacity, not triggering damage and repair.” 

“Stem cells are what excite me most right now” 

For Mr Tiryaki, the reason stem cells continue to dominate his thinking is simple: they address multiple aspects of ageing at once. 

“Facial ageing isn’t just skin,” he explains. “It’s loss of bone volume, ligament support, and tissue integrity.” Stem cell-based approaches, he argues, offer a way to intervene at this deeper level, rather than focusing solely on surface change. 

By using autologous stem cells, it becomes possible to restore volume, support ligamentous structures, and increase regenerative cell populations in areas where they have declined – a multi-layered approach that aligns closely with how ageing actually presents clinically. 

“It’s the closest thing we have to restoring what has been lost,” he says. “Not masking it, but biologically supporting the tissue.” 

Alongside this clinical focus, he has also worked to make stem cell-based concepts more consistent and practical in everyday settings. One example is Lipocube, a compact medical device, to be launched later this year, designed to process a patient’s own fat tissue at the point of care. 

“The idea was to simplify what we were already doing surgically,” he explains. “To take autologous fat, isolate its regenerative components, and return them to the patient in a controlled, reproducible way.” 

“Standardisation doesn’t come from opinion – it comes from data” 

A recurring challenge in regenerative medicine, Mr Tiryaki believes, is the lack of consistency in how treatments are delivered. “For example, stem cell therapies are highly technique-dependent,” he explains. “Small differences in injection depth, volume, or anatomical placement can significantly affect outcomes.” 

To address this, his team began systematically analysing their own clinical experience rather than relying on anecdote alone. “We uploaded more than 3,000 stem cell injections into an AI system,” he says. “Not to replace clinical judgement, but to understand patterns – where to inject, how much to inject, and why those decisions mattered.” 

By mapping injection sites, volumes, tissue planes, and observed outcomes, the system was used to identify repeatable principles that could inform safer, more predictable practice.  

Similar principles underpin his recent work with exosomes, including the development of systems to isolate the regenerative signalling molecules from a patient’s own blood. Building on familiar PRP workflows, these approaches aim to concentrate exosomes and secretomes in a way that remains autologous, controlled, and clinically practical. 

“We’re refining what is already there,” he explains. “Concentrating the components that drive regeneration, while reducing variability and uncertainty.” 

“If something is very cheap, it’s neither safe nor effective” 

When advising practitioners on how to evaluate new technologies, Mr Tiryaki is direct. 

“Regenerative products cannot cost £20,” he says. “That alone should raise questions.” 

His assessment framework is simple: understand who is behind the product, whether credible clinicians or scientists are involved, and whether there is published, peer-reviewed evidence. “It’s common sense,” he emphasises.  

“Science is moving faster than the systems around it” 

Reflecting on the uneven global adoption of regenerative therapies, Mr Tiryaki believes there are lessons to be learned from international approaches. “Science is moving very fast,” he says. “But the systems around it are always behind.” 

He points to countries such as Japan, where regenerative treatments are formally  

assessed and monitored by national health authorities, allowing innovation to progress within defined clinical pathways. In contrast, he notes that many regions rely heavily on external regulatory frameworks that struggle to keep pace with emerging science. 

In the United States, newer ‘right to try’ approaches are also changing how patients can access experimental regenerative therapies under informed consent, creating space for carefully monitored clinical use while longer-term evidence continues to develop. 

“The answer isn’t removing oversight,” he says. “It’s creating frameworks that can evolve with biology, rather than block it.” 

“The real limitation now is education” 

Looking ahead, Mr Tiryaki believes regenerative aesthetics is already emerging as a subspecialty, but one constrained by gaps in understanding rather than lack of innovation. “Everyone wants to be part of it,” he says. “But people don’t yet know what is right and what is wrong.” 

For him, the next phase of the field must focus on structured education, realistic expectations, and evidence-led practice. “There is still a long way to go,” he says. “More research, more data, more learning.” 

“It’s safer – and that matters” 

Despite the challenges, Mr Tiryaki remains deeply committed to regenerative approaches. “There are fewer complications,” he says simply. “It’s safer, so it feels better to be delivering these treatments as a clinician.” 

For him, the next phase of regenerative medicine will be defined less by new tools, and more by how responsibly existing ones are applied. 

After two decades working across science, surgery, and innovation, his perspective is clear: regenerative medicine is not about novelty or enhancement, but about helping the body recover capabilities it once had – carefully, thoughtfully, and with respect for biology. 

Education, Innovation & Clinical Translation 

London Regenerative Institute 
Founded in 2017, London Regenerative Institute was established to address the gap between regenerative science and real-world clinical practice. The Institute brings together surgeons, dermatologists, and scientists through structured education, fellowships, and supervised clinical exposure, with a focus on translating regenerative biology into reproducible, evidence-led protocols. 

Product innovation  

 As well as developing Lipocube, designed to designed to support more consistent use of autologous regenerative material in clinical settings, Mr Tiryaki is a co-founder of Morphyia, a regenerative skin and scalp care line developed from insights gained through clinical and laboratory research. The range applies principles of cellular communication and regenerative signalling to topical formulations, with a focus on supporting skin resilience, repair, and scalp health. Morphyia reflects his interest in how regenerative science can be responsibly translated beyond the clinic into evidence-aligned consumer applications.