Guest Faculty
Jordan Hoffman
Associate Professor of Surgery, Surgical Director of Heart/Lung Transplantation & ECMO Programs, Colorado
Jordan is an attending cardiothoracic and transplant surgeon in Denver, Colorado. He has been instrumental in the development of TA-NRP in Colorado and now supports transplant teams new to the technique throughout the US.
Yanik Bababekov
Assistant Professor of Transplant Surgery, University of Colorado
Yanik is an attending transplant and HPB surgeon in Denver, Colorado. He and his team have developed the largest experience of TA-NRP in North America with over 100 procedures performed. TA-NRP is now their default approach, even for retrieval of abdominal organs only. NRP is an integral component of the Denver transplant fellowship and TA-NRP is routinely performed by abdominal transplant fellows.
Marius Berman
Consultant Cardiothoracic & Transplant Surgeon, Royal Papworth Hospital, Cambridge
Marius is a cardiothoracic surgeon, with a special interest in organ retrieval, transplantation and mechanical circulatory support (MCS). He is the surgical lead for transplantation and MCS at Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge. He is the UK associate clinical lead for organ retrieval, NHSBT. He is an enthusiastic trainer and is currently developing and leading the HRUK Masterclass in organ retrieval and transplantation.
Andrew Butler
Consultant Transplant Surgeon, Cambridge Andrew is a consultant liver and multivisceral transplant surgeon, NORS clinical lead for the Cambridge Transplant Unit and chair of the NHSBT multivisceral transplantation advisory group.
Elijah Ablorsu
Consultant Transplant Surgeon, Cardiff
Elijah has served as the Clinical Lead in Organ Retrieval at the Cardiff Transplant Unit for 12 years, during which he established and led one of the UK's best-performing retrieval teams and introduced NRP technology to Wales. His team has been commended for its exceptional performance and was nominated for the BTS UK Awards for Excellence in 2023.
Edinburgh Faculty
Ian Currie
Consultant Transplant Surgeon
Ian Currie the UK Clinical Lead for Organ Retrieval with NHSBT. Ian has made major contributions to the development of NRP in Edinburgh and subsequently has supported a number of UK centres to develop their own NRP programs. As part of the NHSBT steering group for NRP, Ian has played a central role in defining the knowledge base required for staff engaged in NRP, and in the assessment of biochemical and other parameters as indices of graft quality.
Chris Johnston
Consultant Transplant Surgeon
Chris is currently the Clinical Lead for the Edinburgh National Organ Retrieval Service and Co-chair of the UK NORS Clinical Leads’ Forum. Chris’s clinical practice includes liver transplantation and NRP. He came on board with NRP in 2017 and since then has performed or supervised over 60 successful NRP retrievals as lead surgeon. Chris runs the Edinburgh Transplant Fellowship and has developed a number of platforms for high-definition intraoperative video feedback (some of which will be incorporated into this course).
Ben Stutchfield
Consultant Transplant Surgeon
Ben Stutchfield is a Consultant Transplant Surgeon practicing in liver transplantation and NRP organ retrieval. Research and clinical interests include organ assessment and transplant outcomes. Ben has performed or supervised over 60 successful NRP retrievals as lead surgeon.
Ahmed Sherif
Consultant Transplant Surgeon
Ahmed started training in HPB and liver transplantation at the National Liver Institute, Menoufia University of Egypt, during which he completed MSc and MD with a research focus on the surgical challenges in paediatric living donor liver transplants. Ahmed joined Edinburgh Transplant in 2015 for a fellowship in HPB and deceased organ donation, which was followed by his substantive appointment in 2019. Since 2015, Ahmed has led or supervised over 60 NRP retrievals. In 2021, he was Highly Commended in the UK Awards for Excellence in Organ Retrieval jointly awarded by NHSBT and British Transplant Society for his efforts in organ retrieval service and education and training.
Mekhola Hoff
Consultant Transplant Surgeon
Mekhola joined the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh as a consultant kidney/pancreas transplant and abdominal organ retrieval surgeon in October 2022. She completed her transplant surgical training and PhD in transplant immunology in Cambridge. Her research interests include cell therapy, organ resuscitation and regeneration. She is a recipient of the ASGBI/Intuitive Surgical Robotics and RCSEng One-Year Surgical Research Fellowships. She is a former winner of the Medawar Medal and Patey Prize.
Rachel Thomas
Consultant Transplant Surgeon
Rachel Thomas is a Consultant kidney and pancreas transplant and retrieval surgeon having trained in Edinburgh and Glasgow transplant units and fellowship in Oxford. Rachel is also one of the live donor kidney implant surgeons. Rachel’s MD involved running the HOT study (Heme Oxygenase 1 in renal Transplant) looking at protection for deceased donor renal transplants from inevitable ischaemic injury. Her current QI interest is in Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) for transplant recipients and research interest is in the impact of NRP on kidneys. Rachel regularly teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students locally and nationally and is a tutor on ESSQ.
Manoj Thillai
Consultant Transplant Surgeon
Manoj is a Consultant Liver Transplant Surgeon at the Royal Infirmary. His surgical speciality training was in India where he completed an MCh in GI Surgery, following by various UK senior fellowships in Transplant & HPB Surgery (Leeds, Cambridge, London & Edinburgh). His interests are in novel perfusion technologies, organ retrieval, training & teaching. Manoj has performed or supervised over 60 successful NRP retrievals as lead surgeon.
Avi Sewpaul
Consultant Transplant Surgeon
Avi was appointed as a Consultant Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in June 2019. He graduated from Newcastle University in 2003 before embarking on his basic and higher surgical training in the North-east of England. During this time he undertook his postgraduate research in NMP perfusion of kidneys as a delivery platform for RNA interference. Avi’s research interests include ischaemia reperfusion injury, miRNAs, RNA interference, and novel technologies in organ preservation.
Andrew Sutherland
Consultant Transplant Surgeon
Andrew is a consultant transplant surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. He specialises in Kidney, Pancreas and Islet Cell transplantation as well as laparoscopic living donor nephrectomies. He is clinical lead of the Scottish Pancreas Transplant Unit and is a National Research Scotland clinician and MRC CARP fellow. His research interests include ischaemia reperfusion injury, ischaemic preconditioning and novel technologies in organ preservation.
Fiona Hunt
Research Fellow in Organ Donation and Transplantation
Fiona qualified as a Registered General Nurse in Edinburgh and has since completed a BSc. in Advanced Professional Practice. In 2016, Fiona was appointed by Edinburgh Transplant Centre to support the development of novel technologies in abdominal organ perfusion and preservation, with primary focus being the implementation of normothermic regional perfusion into clinical practice, followed by other new machine perfusion techniques. Fiona is currently on secondment from her role as team manager of the organ perfusion and preservation team, undertaking a PhD research project.
Lynsey Farwell
Team Manager, Organ Perfusion And Preservation
Lynsey has experience as a registered nurse in orthopaedics, transplant / upper GI and HPB theatres. She was a senior theatre practitioner for a total of eight years, the last four as a Team Lead. In 2020 Lynsey secured a new position within the Edinburgh Transplant Centre as an Advanced Organ Perfusion Specialist and was subsequently promoted to the team manager role in 2024
Lesley Coutts
Advanced Organ Perfusion Specialist
Lesley gained a BSc Biological Sciences (Hons) from University of Edinburgh in 1994 and qualified as a Registered Nurse (Adult Nursing) from Napier University in 2001. She began her theatre career at St. John’s Hospital, Livingston and joined the theatre team at Edinburgh Transplant Centre in 2005. She is an experienced Scrub Practitioner with the transplant and retrieval service, also performing cold perfusion as an Organ Preservation Practitioner and in 2015 qualified as an Anaesthetic Assistant. In 2020, Lesley joined the UK’s first dedicated Organ Perfusion and Preservation Team.
Sunny Huang
Advanced Organ Perfusion Specialist
Sunny qualified as a Registered General Nurse in 1990 from Dalian Medical University China. She gained wide experience and recognition as a prize winning team member in both adult and paediatric trauma and medical care while working at Huanghai Hospital, Dalian. She began her theatre career in September 2013 in Cardiothoracic theatres at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and in 2018; Sunny joined the Edinburgh Transplant Centre theatre team. She developed her skills as a theatre practitioner in all areas of transplant and retrieval and joined the team as an advanced perfusion specialist in September 2022.
Kirsty Ritchie
Advanced Organ Perfusion Specialist
Kirsty gained a Bachelor of Nursing with Distinction in Adult Nursing from Edinburgh Napier University in 2012. She began her theatre career in September 2012, where she joined the Edinburgh Transplant Centre and became an experienced pre-operative and peri-operative practitioner in both the transplant and retrieval service. Kirsty spent over ten years within the transplant and retrieval service before joining the team as an advanced perfusion specialist in September 2022.