Professor Michael Nicholson

Transplant organ preservation techniques and ischaemia-reperfusion injury

Professor of Transplant Surgery. Head of Academic General and Transplant Surgery. Director of the NIHR Blood and Transplant Research Unit

Michael Nicholson is Professor of Transplant Surgery and Head of the Division of Academic General & Transplant Surgery at the University of Cambridge. He is also an Honorary Consultant Surgeon at Addenbrooke’s Hospital.

He qualified from Nottingham University and trained in general and transplant surgery in Nottingham, Bristol, Leicester and Oxford. He is the lead for live donor kidney transplantation in Cambridge and has performed 700 laparoscopic live donor nephrectomies and 1100 kidney transplants.

He is the Director of the NIHR Blood and Transplant Research Unit in Organ Donation and Transplantation (odt.btru.nihr.ac.uk). His research group focus on developing renal normothermic machine perfusion with the aim of assessing marginal kidneys and delivering pre-transplant allograft therapies. He has published more than 360 papers, supervised 33 successfully awarded doctorates and raised more than £15M in external grant funding.

DiRito JR, Hosgood SA, Reschke M, Albert C, Bracaglia LG, Ferdinand JR, Stewart BJ, Edwards CM, Vaish AG, Thiru S, Mulligan DC, Haakinson DJ, Clatworthy MR, Saltzman WM, Pober JS, Nicholson ML, Tietjen GT.
Lysis of cold-storage-induced microvascular obstructions for ex vivo revitalisation of marginal human kidneys.
Am J Transplant 2020; Jul 5: online ahead of print PMID 32627324

Thompson ER, Bates L, Ibrahim KI, Avinash S, Stenberg B, McNeill A, Figueiredo R, Girdlestone T, Wilkins GC, Wang L, Tingle SJ, Scott WE, Lamos H, Mellor AL, Roobrouck VD, Ting AE, Hosgood SA, Nicholson ML, Fisher AJ, Ali S, Sheerin NS, Wilson CH.
Novel delivery of cellular therapy to reduce ischaemia reperfusion injury in kidney transplantation.
Am J Transplant 2020; Jun 7: online ahead of print PMID 32506663

Nicholson ML, Yong C, Trotter PB, Grant L, Hosgood SA.
Risk factors for transplant renal artery stenosis after live donor transplantation.
Brit J Surg 2019;106:199-205.

Hosgood SA, Thompson E, Moore TA, Wilson CH, Nicholson ML.
Normothermic machine perfusion for the assessment and transplantation of declined human kidneys from donation after circulatory death donors.
Brit J Surg 2018;105:388-394.

Tietjen GT, Hosgood SA, Kirkiles-Smith NC, Cui J, Piotrowski-Daspit AS, Deep D, Song E, DiRito J, Al-Lamki R, Bradley A, Saeb-Parsy K, Bradley JR, Nicholson ML, Saltzman WM, Pober JS.
Antibody-targeting can increase nanoparticle delivery to endothelial cells during ex vivo normothermic machine perfusion of human kidney.
Science Translational Medicine 2017;29:418.

Hosgood SA, Saeb-Parsy K, Hamed MO, Nicholson ML.
Successful transplantation of human kidneys deemed untransplantable but resuscitated by ex-vivo normothermic machine perfusion.
Am J Transplant 2016:16:3282-85.

Hosgood SA, Barlow AD, Hunter JP, Nicholson ML. 
Ex vivo normothermic perfusion for quality assessment of marginal donor kidneys
Br J Surg 2015;102:1433-40.

Nicholson ML, Pattenden CJ, Barlow AD, Hunter JP, Lee G, Hosgood SA.
A double blind randomized clinical trial of remote ischemic conditioning in live donor renal transplantation.
Medicine 2015;94:1316.

Nicholson ML, Hosgood SA. 
Renal Transplantation after normothermic perfusion: the first clinical study. 
Am J Transplant 2013;13:1246-52

Hosgood SA, Nicholson ML. Age and cold storage in kidneys from
circulatory-death donors.
Lancet. 2013;381:703-4.

Nicholson ML, Kaushik M, Lewis GR, Brook NR, Bagul A, Kay MD, Harper SJ, Elwell R, Veitch PS. 
Randomized clinical trial of laparoscopic versus open donor nephrectomy. 
Br J Surg 2010;97:21-8.

Brook NR, Nicholson ML. Non-directed live kidney donation.                             
Lancet 2006;368:346-7

Nicholson ML, Metcalfe MS, White SA, Doughman TM, Horsburgh T, Feehally J, Carr SJ, Veitch PS. Comparison of the results of renal transplantation from non-heart beating, conventional cadaveric and living donors. 
Kidney International 2000; 58: 2585-2591.

Hunterian Professorship, Royal College of Surgeons of England;
Arris and Gale Lectureship, Royal College of Surgeons of England;
Moynihan Medal, Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland;
Medawar Medal, British Transplantation Society;
Norman Tanner Prize for Surgery, Royal Society of Medicine;
Clarke Medal, Worshipful Society of Cutlers;
Jean Morelle Lectureship, University of Leuven;
British Journal of Surgery Prize (best published manuscript of the year - 6 awards);
Surgical Innovation Award, Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland;
Williams Prize, Society of Academic and Research Surgeons;
Burnand Prize, Society of Academic and Research Surgeons;
NIHR Senior Investigator Award.

2018