Dr Paul Dark
Senior Lecturer & Honorary Consultant Intensivist
- Email: paul.m.dark@manchester.ac.uk
- Telephone: +44 (0)161 206 4718
Intensive Care Unit
Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust
Salford, Greater Manchester
M6 8HD
UK
Role
I am a Senior Lecturer in the Respiratory Medicine Research Group in the School of Translational Medicine. I am also an Honorary NHS Consultant Adult Intensivist at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Teaching Trust where I perform all of my 7PA clinical sessions in level 3 Intensive Care. My research programme centres on understanding human responses to severe sterile tissue injury (SIRS) and infection (sepsis), with a specialist interest in developing physical and chemical biomarkers of SIRS/sepsis and translation into clinical diagnostics in critical care medicine. In addition, I am School Lead in Undergraduate Teaching and Assessment providing senior management organisation and planning linking the key School elements of research and postgraduate education with maintaining education excellence in support of our undergraduate MB ChB programme in Manchester. I also provide a key planning input for the development of the "2011 MB ChB" curriculum, leading the vertical theme “Doctor as Practitioner”.
Biography
I am an academic intensive care physician and Research Director of one of the largest level 3 ICU facilities in the UK. As a graduate in physics, and former MRC Clinical Training Fellow and Visiting Clinical Professor in Emergency and Critical Care Medicine at The Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, I have developed extensive experience in medicine, physics and integrative physiology, focused on translation of basic physical and biomedical science to innovation in patient care. My research portfolio includes strong links with Molecular Medicine, Computer Sciences, Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering, including previous EPSRC multidisciplinary funding to develop new data visualization tools for complex multi-dimensional datasets generated in critical care. Other achievements include innovative computer-based techniques aimed at reducing nosocomial infection in ICU and improving psychological recovery from critical illness, both receiving innovation awards by Microsoft. Recently, I am PI on two NIHR portfolio clinical trials; one in optimising oxygen delivery to tissues during high-risk surgery aimed at reducing patient centred complications such as post operative infection (National OPTIMISE study) and another determining the clinical validity of multiplex PCR technology aimed at rapid diagnosis of sepsis-related blood stream infection in critical care (NIHR HTA 08/13/16). In addition, I am part of a multi-disciplinary research team developing innovative technologies aimed at undestanding the metabolomic profile of mechanically ventilated patients' breath who are at risk of developing healthcare associated infection in intensive care.
Qualifications
BSc (First Class Honours, Physics, Salford 1983)
MB ChB (Manchester 1989)
FRCS (Edinburgh 1994)
PhD (Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, Victoria University of Manchester 2002)
FCEM (London, 2002)
Collaborators and affiliated staff
Collaborators
Research focuses on developing an understanding of how humans respond biologically to severe injury and infection, and developing new therapeutic approaches to help people survive and recover from intensive care.
Consultant NHS Scientist, Honorary Reader in School of Translational Medicine, University of Manchester and Honorary Professor of Biomedical Sciences, University of Salford. Understanding biological responses to severe sterile tissue injury (SIRS) and infection (Sepsis) in humans, including development and translation of new molecular biomarkers of infection in critical illness.
Mathematics and Imaging Sciences, University of Manchester, in conjunction with Professor Kim Parker, Engineering, Imperial College, London.
Joint supervisor of Strategic PhD Studentship; novel clinical physical biomarkers of cardio-respiratory function in human disease.
Bioinformatics in Medicine, Computer Sciences and Faculty of Life Sciences.
Systems biology and survival from injury and infection in humans (in collaboration with Wellcome Trust Thematic Project Award in Functional Genomics: Liverpool, Manchester, Roslin-Edinburgh and International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya).
Selected publications
2012
- Paul Dark, Claire Wilson, Bronagh Blackwood, Danny F. McAuley, Gavin D Perkins, Ronan McMullan, Simon Gates, Geoffrey Warhurst. (2012). Accuracy of LightCycler® SeptiFast for the detection and identification of pathogens in the blood of patients with suspected sepsis: a systematic review protocol. BMJ Open, 2012;2:e000392. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2011-000392, eScholarID:137617 | DOI:10.1136/bmjopen-2011-000392
2011
- Gully H, Bouamra O, Dark P, Coates T, Lecky F. (2011). Vital signs and estimated blood loss in patients with major trauma: testing the validity of the ATLS classification of hypovolaemic shock. Resuscitation, 82(5), 556-559. eScholarID:110591 | DOI:10.1016/j.resuscitation.2011.01.013
- Paul Dark, Graham Dunn, Paul Chadwick, Duncan Young, Andrew Bentley, Gordon Carlson and Geoffrey Warhurst. (2011). The clinical diagnostic accuracy of rapid detection of healthcare-associated bloodstream infection in intensive care using multi-pathogen real-time polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR) technology. BMJ Open, 1(1), 1-7. eScholarID:124369 | DOI:10.1136/bmjopen-2011-000181
- Willoughby, L., Dark, P. & Warhurst, G (2011). Investigation of Systemic and Mesenteric Inflammatory Signalling and Gut-Derived Endothelial Toxicity in Patients Undergoing High-Risk Abdominal Aortic Surgery. Shock, eScholarID:124367 | PMID:21558985 | DOI:10.1097/SHK.0b013e3182205bbd
- Dean P and Dark P. (2011). Diagnostic future for bloodstream infections. Intensive Care Medicine (Epub ahead of print), 37(2), 355-356. eScholarID:101499
- Paul Dark, Claire Wilson, Bronagh Blackwood, Danny McAuley, Gavin Perkins, Ronan McMullan, Simon Gates, Geoffrey Warhurst. (2011). Accuracy of LightCycler® SeptiFast for the detection and identification of pathogens in the blood of patients with suspected sepsis: a PROSPERO systematic review protocol. PROSPERO: International prospective register for systematic reviews: National Institute for Health Reserach. eScholarID:124370
2010
- Dark PM and Carlson G. (2010). General Principles of Sepsis. In Kirby I. Bland (Editor), Michael G. Sarr (Editor), Markus W. Büchler (Editor), Attila Csendes (Editor), Oliver James Garden (Editor), John Wong (Editor) (Ed.), Critical Care Surgery: Handbooks in General Surgery. Springer. eScholarID:101495
- Carlson G and Dark P. (2010). Acute Intestinal Failure. Current Opinions in Critical Care, 16(4), 347-352. eScholarID:101500 | DOI:10.1097/MCC.0b013e328339fabe
- Felton, T., Plested, V., Walsham, A., Dark, P., O'Driscoll, R. & Denning, D (2010). A 27-year-old woman with acute, severe asthma who developed respiratory failure. Chest, 137(3), 724-7. eScholarID:80201 | PMID:20202956 | DOI:10.1378/chest.09-1795
- Guly HR, Bouamra O, Little R, Dark P, Coats T, Driscoll P, Lecky FE. (2010). Testing the vailidity of the ATLS classification of hypovolaemic shock. Resuscitation, 81(9), 1142-1147. eScholarID:101501 | DOI:10.1016/j.resuscitation.2010.04.007
- Loizou, E., Bouamra, O., Dark, P., Martin, B. & Lecky, F (2010). Comparing the systolic blood pressure (SBP) and pulse rate (PR) in injured children with and without traumatic brain injury. Resuscitation, 81(4), 418-21. eScholarID:80202 | PMID:20117873 | DOI:10.1016/j.resuscitation.2009.12.017
- Felton T, Mount T, Chadwick P, Ghrew M, Dark P. (2010). Surveillance non-directed bronchial lavage allows confident use of focused antibiotics in the management of ventilator-associated pneumonia. Journal of Infection, 60(5), 397-399. eScholarID:80207
2009
- Chrysochou, C., Buckley, D., Dark, P., Cowie, A. & Kalra, P (2009). Gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging for renovascular disease and nephrogenic systemic fibrosis: critical review of the literature and UK experience. J Magn Reson Imaging, 29(4), 887-94. eScholarID:80206 | PMID:19306428 | DOI:10.1002/jmri.21708
- Dark PM, Dean P, Warhurst G. (2009). Bench-to-bedside review: the promise of rapid infection diagnosis during sepsis using polymerase chain reaction-based pathogen detection. Critical Care, 13(4), 217. eScholarID:80211 | DOI:10.1186/cc7886
- Felton TW, Sander R, Al-Aloul M, Dark P, Bentley AM. (2009). Can a score derived from the Critical Care Minimum Data Set be used as a marker of organ dysfunction? - a pilot study. BMC Research Notes, 2, 77. eScholarID:80212 | DOI:10.1186/1756-0500-2-77
- Rathkolb, B., Noyes, H., Brass, A., Dark, P., Fuchs, H., Gailus-Durner, V., Gibson, J., de Angelis, M., Ogugo, M., Iraqi, F., Kemp, S., Naessens, J., Pope, M., Wolf, E. & Agaba, M (2009). Clinical chemistry of congenic mice with quantitative trait loci for predicted responses to Trypanosoma congolense infection. Infect Immun, 77(9), 3948-57. eScholarID:80204 | PMID:19596769 | DOI:10.1128/IAI.00658-09
- Dark P, Chadwick P, Warhurst G. (2009). Detecting sepsis-associated bloodstream infection acquired in intensive care using multi-pathogen real-time PCR. Journal of Infection, 59(4), 296-298. eScholarID:80208
2008
- Dark P and Warhurst G. (2008). Cytokine physiology of sepsis. Critical Care Update 2008. Jaypee. eScholarID:59096
- Dark PM, Gordon Carlson. (2008). General Principles of Sepsis. General Surgery: Principles and International Practice. ( 1, pp. 241-251). Springer. eScholarID:3d252
- Felton, TW; Ghrew, M; Dark, P. (2008). SURVEILLANCE OF NON-DIRECTED BRONCHIAL LAVAGE IN THE MANAGEMENT OF VENTILATOR-ASSOCIATED PNEUMONIA. Thorax, 63, A149-A150. eScholarID:59116
2007
- O'Connor, JP B, Jackson, A-, Giovanni Buonccoris, Watson, Y, Cheung, SW, Roberts, C, McGrath, DM, Rose, CJ, Dark, PM, Jayson, G-, Buckley, DL, Parker, GJM. (2007). Organ-specific effects of oxygen and carbogen gas inhalation on tissue longitudinal relaxation times. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 58(3), 490-496. eScholarID:1d14022