Program Overview

Program Overview

The University of Birmingham offers a course titled "Liver Transplants: The Ins and Outs." This course is designed to provide learners with an understanding of the fascinating field of liver transplantation, covering its history, the science behind the operation, and the biology of the liver.

Course Details

• The course is a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), which is free and open to learners worldwide.
• It is delivered by world-class academics from the University of Birmingham in partnership with FutureLearn.
• The course does not offer credits towards admission to the University of Birmingham.

Course Content

The course explores the major issues related to liver transplantation, including:

• How it is possible to take an organ like the liver from one person and have it survive inside another.
• The ethics of organ donation and how organs should be allocated.
• The increasing demand for donor livers for transplantation.
• New advances that can increase the numbers of organs available for liver transplant.

Course Structure

• The course is three weeks long.
• It features discussions with surgeons, clinical staff, liver transplant coordinators, and patients about their experiences with liver transplant.

Lead Academics

• Trish Lalor, a Senior Investigator and research scientist in the Centre for Liver Research, with expertise in leucocyte recruitment, endothelial biology, and liver disease.
• Zania Stamataki, an Associate Professor in Viral Immunology in the Centre for Liver Research, with research interests in defining the complex role of lymphocytes in persistent infections.

Course Knowledge Requirements

The course is of interest to anyone captivated by human biology, transplantation, surgery, or the immune system. There are no specific prerequisites mentioned for the course.

Start Date

The course has no official start date, as it is an open and rolling course, allowing learners to join at any time.