Professor of Transplantation and Honorary Consultant Surgeon
Biography/Research interests
Professor Watson is part of the Cambridge abdominal organ transplant unit performing liver, kidney, pancreas and intestinal transplants; he directs the pancreas transplant programme. His main research interest lies in optimising the use of organs for transplantation. This has included work to quantify the risks of donor transmitted disease, particularly brain tumours, as well as work aimed to improve the function of organs post transplantation in particular those donated after circulatory death (DCD). This has included pioneering in situ normothermic regional perfusion of DCD donors in the UK and normothermic perfusion of livers prior to transplantation. His previous work included some of the early studies of the immunosuppressants sirolimus and alemtuzumab, and studies of hypothermic kidney machine perfusion of kidneys.
Key publications
Watson CJE, Hunt F, Messer S, Currie I, Large S, Sutherland A, Crick K, Wigmore SJ, Fear C, Cornateanu S, Randle LV, Terrace JD, Upponi S, Taylor R, Allen E, Butler AJ, Oniscu GC. In situ normothermic perfusion of livers in controlled circulatory death donation may prevent ischemic cholangiopathy and improve graft survival. Am J Transplant. 2019;19:
Watson CJE, Kosmoliaptsis V, Pley C, Randle L, Fear C, Crick K, Gimson AE, Allison M, Upponi S, Brais R, Jochmans I, Butler AJ. Observations on the ex situ perfusion of livers for transplantation. Am J Transplant. 2018;18:2005-2020
Collett D, Friend PJ, Watson CJ. Factors Associated With Short- and Long-term Liver Graft Survival in the United Kingdom: Development of a UK Donor Liver Index. Transplantation. 2017;101(4):786-92.
Nasralla D, Coussios CC, Mergental H, Akhtar MZ, Butler AJ, Ceresa CDL, Chiocchia V, Dutton SJ, Garcia-Valdecasas JC, Heaton N, Imber C, Jassem W, Jochmans I, Karani J, Knight SR, Kocabayoglu P, Malago M, Mirza D, Morris PJ, Pallan A, Paul A, Pavel M, Perera M, Pirenne J, Ravikumar R, Russell L, Upponi S, Watson CJE, Weissenbacher A, Ploeg RJ, Friend PJ, Consortium for Organ Preservation in Europe. A randomized trial of normothermic preservation in liver transplantation. Nature. 2018;557(7703):50-6.
Warrens AN, Birch R, Collett D, Daraktchiev M, Dark JH, Galea G, Gronow K, Neuberger J, Hilton D, Whittle IR, Watson CJ, Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood T, Organs UK. Advising potential recipients on the use of organs from donors with primary central nervous system tumors. Transplantation. 2012;93(4):348-53.
Watson CJE, Roberts R, Wright KA, Greenberg DC, Rous BA, Brown CH, Counter C, Collett D, Bradley JA (2010) How safe is it to transplant organs from deceased donors with primary intracranial malignancy? An analysis of UK Registry data. Am J Transplant, 10; 1437-1444.
Ellis H, Calne RY and Watson CJE (2016) Lecture notes in general surgery. 13th Edition, Wiley, Oxford.
Areas of expertise
Liver, kidney, pancreas transplantation; organ preservation; donation after circulatory death; donor transmitted disease
