Staff Profile
Professor John Dark
Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery
- Email: john.dark@ncl.ac.uk
- Telephone: 44 191 208 5851
- Address: Translational and Clinical Research Institute
1st floor William Leech Building
Medical School
Framlington Place
NE2 4HH
Previously Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Edinburgh 1986-87, Freeman Hospital 1987-2017
National Clinical Lead for Governance, Organ Donation and Transplantation, NHSBT 2012-2018
Clinical Profile
I headed the cardiac and pulmonary transplant programme at the Freeman hospital for over 20 years, building it into the most active in the UK, and resumed a lead role in the transplant programme in March 2016.
Clinical interests were in adult heart and lung transplantation, complex aortic surgery, and mitral and aortic valve repair, but I performed the full range of procedures within adult cardiac surgery. I was a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon for over 30 years and previously maintained a very busy and varied clinical workload. I retired from clinical practice at the end of August 2017, but as a result of ongoing research programmes, maintain a close contact with the clinical service in Newcastle.
Current Roles and Responsibilities
Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery, NUTCRI
CI, SIGNET Trial
Qualifications MB.BS 1976 FRCS, Edinburgh, London, 1980 FRCP Edinburgh 1992, London 2002, FETCS 1996
Memberships
Honours and Awards
Past-President of both the European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT) and the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT).
Awarded Honorary FRCP Edinburgh 1995, London 2002
Honeyman Gillespie Lecture; Edinburgh, 1988, Sydney Watson Smith Lecture; RCP Edinburgh, 1994, Clement Price-Thomas Award RCS England 1995,Tudor Edwards Lecturer RCS England 1999, Hilary Festenstein Lecturer, BSHI 2014
James lV Professor RCS Edinburgh in 2003,
Mortimer J Buckley Visiting Professor at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 2017 and Visiting Professor, Centre Hospitalier de Universitaire Montreal (CHUM) October 2018
I previously chaired the Clinical Reference Group for Heart and Lung Transplantation at NHS England
Extensive experience in clinical and laboratory research, going back over 30 years. Supervision of a number of Mres projects, MD’s and three recent PhD’s, all completed. Recognised as a PI within the Translational and Clinical Research Institute , Newcastle University
Research interests centred around clinical heart and lung transplantation, reperfusion injury in the lung and then pathophysiology of brain stem death. We had an active interest in clinical EVLP and I was a PI for the Newcastle-based DEVELOP-UK Trial. Current research is focussed on donor pathophysiology, therapeutic donor interventions and ex-vivo organ perfusion.
One PhD Fellow, supported by MRC Clinical Training Research Fellowship, carrying out work with a novel ex-vivo hypothermic Oxygenated Perfusion (HOP) system
One PhD Fellow, supported by NHSBT (CTAG Audit Fellow) working on a lung donor score and improved organ utilisation
I co-chair Theme 1 of the Cambridge/Newcastle NIHR funded Blood and Transplant Research Unit (BTRU)
CI, SIGNET 2020-2025
Local PI ART, 2008-10, QUOD, 2012 to present, QUOD/MRC Expansion 2017 to present.
Chair of DMP for PITHIA 2017 to present, member of DMP for ARISE 2014-9
I recently stepped down from the roles of Associate Editor for both the European Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery (EJCTS) and the American Journal of Transplantation) AJT).National teaching to SCTS Research programme, National Student Surgical Society
Regional teaching on FRCS Cardiothoracic Course
Local Involvement in NESTAC
Teaching on Mres Transplantation module