Staff Profile

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

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

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

• Fisher AJ, Dark JH. Ex vivo repair of human donor lungs for transplantation. Nature Medicine 2020, 26, 1015-1016.
• Manara A, Shemie SD, Large S, Healey A, Baker A, Badiwala M, Berman M, Butler AJ, Chaudhury P, Dark J, Forsythe J, Freed DH, Gardiner D, Harvey D, Hornby L, MacLean J, Messer S, Oniscu GC, Simpson C, Teitelbaum J, Torrance S, Wilson LC, Watson CJE. Maintaining the permanence principle for death during in situ normothermic regional perfusion for donation after circulatory death organ recovery: A United Kingdom and Canadian proposal. American Journal of Transplantation 2020, 20(8), 2017-2025.
• Wang L, Wang T, Rushton SN, Parry G, Dark JH, Sheerin NS. The Impact of Severe Acute Kidney Injury Requiring Renal Replacement Therapy on Survival and Renal Function of Heart Transplant Recipients – A UK Cohort Study. Transplant International 2020, 33(12), 1650-1666.
• MacGowan GA, Dark JH, Corris PA, Nair AR. Effects of drug abuse, smoking and alcohol on donor hearts and lungs. Transplant International 2019, 32(10), 1019-1027.
• Khushnood A, Butt TA, Jungschleger J, Henderson P, Smith JH, De Rita F, Nassar M, Page A, Messer S, Large S, Dark JH, Parry G, Reinhardt Z, Hasan A. Paediatric donation after circulatory determined death heart transplantation using donor normothermic regional perfusion and ex situ heart perfusion: A case report. Pediatric Transplantation 2019, 23(6), e13536.
• Dark JH. “Ex” becomes “in”: A new direction for ex vivo lung perfusion?. Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 2018, 155(1), 438-439.
• Dark JH. Interleukin-10 transfection and the donor lung - A still-evolving story. Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 2018, 156(3), 1303-1304.
• Bayliss CD, Booth KL, Williams R, Dark JH, Gould KF. Managing a Mycotic Thoracoabdominal Aneurysm: The Importance of Molecular Diagnostics. Annals of Thoracic Surgery 2017, 104(5), e379-e381.
• Andreasson ASI, Karamanou DM, Gillespie CS, Özalp F, Butt T, Hill P, Jiwa K, RWalden H, Green NJ, Borthwick LA, Clark SC, Pauli H, Gould KF, Corris PA, Ali S, Dark JH, Fisher AJ. Profiling inflammation and tissue injury markers in perfusate and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid during human ex vivo lung perfusion. European Journal of Cardio-thoracic Surgery 2017, 51(3), 577-586.
• Diamond JM, Arcasoy S, Kennedy CC, Eberlein M, Singer JP, Patterson GM, Edelman JD, Dhillon G, Pena T, Kawut SM, Lee JC, Girgis R, Dark J, Thabut G. Report of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation Working Group on Primary Lung Graft Dysfunction, part II: Epidemiology, risk factors, and outcomes-A 2016 Consensus Group statement of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation. Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation 2017, 36(10), 1104-1113.
• Urban M, Booth K, O'Sullivan J, Dark J. Novel Management of Atrial Septal Defect at Time of Lung Transplantation. Annals of Thoracic Surgery 2018, 106(1), e1-e2.
• Birch J, Sunny SS, Hester KLM, Parry G, Kate Gould F, Dark JH, Clark SC, Meachery G, Lordan J, Fisher AJ, Corris PA, De Soyza A. Outcomes of lung transplantation in adults with bronchiectasis. BMC Pulmonary Medicine 2018, 18, 82.
• Dark JH. Pathophysiology and Predictors of Bronchial Complications After Lung Transplantation. Thoracic Surgery Clinics 2018, 28(3), 357-363.
• Dark JH, Hasan A. Preface: Back to the Future. Annals of Cardiothoracic Surgery 2018, 7(1), 2-2.
• Jungschleger JGM, Boldyrev SY, Kaleda VI, Dark JH. Standard orthotopic heart transplantation. Annals of Cardiothoracic Surgery 2018, 7(1), 169-171.
• Dimarakis I, Banner NR, Rushton S, Wong HSE, Berman M, Howell N, Payne J, Dark J, Mehew J, Venkateswaran R. The interval between brainstem death and cardiac assessment influences the retrieval of hearts for transplantation. European Journal of Cardio-thoracic Surgery 2018, 53(6), 1135-1143.
• Kenny LA, DeRita F, Nassar M, Dark J, Coats L, Hasan A. Transplantation in the single ventricle population. Annals of Cardiothoracic Surgery 2018, 7(1), 152-159.
• Wood G, Booth K, Khan Z, Biss T, Roysam C, Dark J. Descending aortic aneurysm in Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome: options for repair. Asian Cardiovascular and Thoracic Annals 2017, 25(9), 635-637.
• Hardman G, Dark JH. Commentary: The end of the beginning?. Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 2021, 162(5), 1489-1490.
• Wang L, Dark JH. Heart transplantation. Surgery 2020, 38(7), 375-381.
• Hardman G, Hogg R, Rushton S, Booth K, Fisher AJ, Dark JH. Lung Transplantation and Utilisation Following Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD) in the UK. The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation 2020, 39(4), S139-S139.
• Booth K, Dark JH. Commentary: Pseudoaneurysm aortopathy after heart transplantation—A link too far?. Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 2019, 158(6), E187-E188.
• Kanagasundaram NS, Baudouin SV, Rowling S, Prabhu M, Dark JH, Goodship THJ, Chinnery PF, Hudson G. Mitochondrial Haplogroup and the Risk of Acute Kidney Injury Following Cardiac Bypass Surgery. Scientific Reports 2019, 9, 2279.
• Fisher A, Andreasson A, Chrysos A, Lally J, Mamasoula C, Exley C, Wilkinson J, Qian J, Watson G, Lewington O, Chadwick T, McColl E, Pearce M, Mann K, McMeekin N, Vale L, Tsui S, Yonan N, Simon A, Marczin N, Mascaro J, Dark J. An observational study of Donor Ex Vivo Lung Perfusion in UK Lung Transplantation : DEVELOP-UK. Health Technology Assessment 2016, 20(85).
• Hardman G, Sutcliffe R, Hogg R, Mumford L, Grocott L, Jerrett L, Mead-Regan S-J, Nuttall J, Dunn S, Seeley P, Quigley R, Dalzell JR, Al-Attar N, Parameshwar J, Fisher AJ, Booth K, Dark JH. Heart transplantation in the UK during the first wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Clinical Transplantation 2021, 35(5), e14261.
• Hardman G, Sutcliffe R, Hogg R, Mumford L, Grocott L, Mead-Regan S-J, Nuttall J, Dunn S, Seeley P, Clark S, Quigley R, Al-Attar N, Booth K, Dark JH, Fisher AJ. The impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and COVID-19 on lung transplantation in the UK: Lessons learned from the first wave. Clinical Transplantation 2021, 35(3), e14210.
• Wang L, MacGowan GA, Ali S, Dark JH. Ex situ heart perfusion: The past, the present, and the future. Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation 2020, 40(1), 69-86.
• Wang L, Andreasson A, Straughan C, Sims AJ, Brennan KJ, Fisher AJ, Clark SC, Parry G, Booth KL, Dark JH. Developing DSA Post-Lung Transplant - Identifying Risk Factors. In: 39th International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions. 2019, Orlando, Florida USA: Elsevier.