LOCATION
Oxford Transplant Centre, Churchill Hospital, Oxford, OX3 7LE
Websites
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Centre for Evidence in Transplantation (CET)
Research group
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AI for Digital Health Lab
Collaborator
Collaborators
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Rutger J. Ploeg
Professor of Transplant Biology and Head of Strategy
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Peter Friend
Emeritus Professor of Transplantation
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Reshma Rana Magar
Systematic Reviewer
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James Hunter
Associate Professor of Transplant Surgery
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Hussain Abbas
DPhil Student and Clinical Research Fellow in Transplant Surgery
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Richard Dumbill
Academic Clinical Lecturer & Registrar in General Surgery (Transplantation)
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Mohamed Elzawahry
DPhil Student
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Maria Kaisar
Associate Professor of Transplantation Science
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Jessica Scaife
Research Manager
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Alexander Sagar
MRC Clinical Research Training Fellow and DPhil candidate
Simon Knight
MA MChir FRCS
Associate Professor of Transplant Surgery
- Honorary Consultant Transplant and Vascular Access Surgeon
- Director, Centre for Evidence in Transplantation
- Divisional Medical Informatics Lead for SUWON division
- Clinical Lead for Vascular Access Surgery
I undertook my undergraduate studies at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, gaining a BA in medical science in 2000 before studying clinical medicine at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge. I qualified as a doctor in 2002, and moved to Nottingham for my Basic Surgical Training. I moved to Oxford in May 2006 to take up a position with the Centre for Evidence in Transplantation (CET) as a clinical research fellow in transplant surgery, during which time I completed my Master of Surgery (MChir) thesis with the University of Cambridge. After completion of my surgical training, I took up a post as an Honorary Consultant Transplant Surgeon and Senior Clinical Research Fellow at Oxford in 2017. I have now taken over as Director of the CET.
My research interests lie in evidence-based transplant surgery, transplant clinical trials, trial methodology and health informatics.
I have completed and supervised a large number systematic reviews relating to the optimisation of post-transplant immunosuppression and other topics in transplantation. The CET has worked closely with the European Society for Organ Transplantation and British Transplantation Society, providing input into clinical practice guidelines, consensus statements and trial design for members.
I am co-PI and investigator for a number of national and international clinical trials. I was part of the design committee for of the Consortium for Organ Preservation in Europe (COPE) trials of novel organ preservation techniques, all three of which are now complete and published. I am co-PI for the NIHR-funded PLUS, COBALT and DeFAT studies, and co-applicant for the NIHR-funded NKP-1, SONAR and TAR-GET 1 studies. I am a member of the BTS Organ Donation and Transplant Research Network Board and and associate editor for European Surgical Research.
I also have an interest in health informatics and clinical decision support tools. In my clinical role, I am Divisional Medical Informatics Lead for Surgery Women's and Oncology Division (SUWON). I am currently working with the AI for Digital Heath lab, investigating the use of machine learning models in aiding clinical decision making around organ offers. This work is funded by an NIHR AI in Health and Care award.
For more information on my work, and that of the CET, please visit the CET website.
Key publications
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A randomized trial of normothermic preservation in liver transplantation.
Journal article
Nasralla D. et al, (2018), Nature, 557, 50 - 56
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Prolonged normothermic perfusion of the kidney prior to transplantation: a historically controlled, phase 1 cohort study.
Journal article
Dumbill R. et al, (2025), Nat Commun, 16
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Predicting graft and patient outcomes following kidney transplantation using interpretable machine learning models
Journal article
SALAUN A. et al, (2024), Scientific Reports
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Oxygenated versus standard cold perfusion preservation in kidney transplantation (COMPARE): a randomised, double-blind, paired, phase 3 trial.
Journal article
Jochmans I. et al, (2020), Lancet, 396, 1653 - 1662
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Oxygenated End-Hypothermic Machine Perfusion in Expanded Criteria Donor Kidney Transplant: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
Journal article
Husen P. et al, (2021), JAMA Surg, 156, 517 - 525
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Steroid avoidance or withdrawal after renal transplantation increases the risk of acute rejection but decreases cardiovascular risk. A meta-analysis.
Journal article
Knight SR. and Morris PJ., (2010), Transplantation, 89, 1 - 14
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Mycophenolate mofetil decreases acute rejection and may improve graft survival in renal transplant recipients when compared with azathioprine: a systematic review.
Journal article
Knight SR. et al, (2009), Transplantation, 87, 785 - 794
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Defining Priorities for Future Research: Results of the UK Kidney Transplant Priority Setting Partnership.
Journal article
Knight SR. et al, (2016), PLoS One, 11
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Quality and consistency of outcome reporting in clinical trials of immunosuppression in renal transplantation.
Journal article
Hussain S. and Knight SR., (2016), Clin Transplant, 30, 1440 - 1448
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Trial design and endpoints in clinical transplant research.
Journal article
Knight SR. et al, (2016), Transpl Int, 29, 870 - 879
Recent publications
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Evaluation of a national digital pre-implantation biopsy service for deceased-donor kidney transplantation in the UK (Pithia trial); a stepped-wedge cluster randomised registry trial.
Journal article
Summers DM. et al, (2025), Lancet Reg Health Eur, 56
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SurvUnc: A Meta-Model Based Uncertainty Quantification Framework for Survival Analysis
Conference paper
Liu YU. et al, (2025), Proceedings of the 31st ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining
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Effect of a Laparoscopic Donor Nephrectomy in Healthy Living Kidney Donors on the Acute Phase Response Using Either Propofol or Sevoflurane Anesthesia.
Journal article
Brattinga B. et al, (2025), Int J Mol Sci, 26
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Prolonged normothermic perfusion of the kidney prior to transplantation: a historically controlled, phase 1 cohort study.
Journal article
Dumbill R. et al, (2025), Nat Commun, 16
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Prolonged normothermic perfusion of the kidney – a historically controlled, phase 1 cohort study
Journal article
KNIGHT S. et al, (2025), Nature Communications