Dr Derek G D Wight

Formerly College Lecturer in Pathology & Director of Studies in Pathology and Clinical Medicine

I was employed as a Consultant Histopathologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital and was an Associate University Lecturer in the Department of Pathology until 2001.  At Addenbrooke’s I was Director of the Histopathology Department until my retirement, and sometime overall Clinical Director of (hospital) Pathology.  I was also Programme Director of Postgraduate Medical training in Histopathology for the East Anglian Region.  My professional interests were in the histopathological diagnosis of tissues taken from patients (biopsies, surgically removed tissues) and the teaching and training of junior pathologists in these techniques.

My principal research interests were in the field of human and experimental liver transplantation and in the preservation of organs (particularly livers) awaiting transplantation.  Cambridge was one of the first three units in the world to attempt liver transplantation, under the direction of Sir Roy Calne, in the 1970s.  An experimental programme that sought to define the histopathological features of rejection underpinned the clinical programme.  Regular biopsies enabled us to define the causes of post-operative liver dysfunction and thus select the appropriate therapeutic measures.

Co-author of numerous papers and chapters on liver disease and on aspects of liver preservation and experimental and human liver transplantation.

Books: author of Atlas of Liver Pathology First edition 1982 MTP Press Limited, Lancaster, Second edition 1993 Kluwer Academic Publishers, Lancaster, pp 199.   Editor, The Liver, Biliary Tract & Pancreas  In: Systemic Pathology, General Editor W StC Symmers, Third Edition, 1994, Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh, pp 736.