A RECRUITMENT drive is under way to help market an Oxford invention that keeps a donated human liver alive outside the body for up to 24 hours.

The device, developed by a firm called OrganOx, is already being used to help liver transplants but could be adapted for organs such as kidneys and lungs.

It effectively pumps the liver with blood and bile while supplying it with the right balance of oxygen and other nutrients.

Chief executive Les Russell said: “We are starting to build up our commercial team to take the company to the next stage.

“The clinical trial has gone very well and we have further trials planned for next year.”

OrganOx was founded by two Oxford professors, Constantin Coussios, a professor of biomedical engineering at Oxford University, and surgeon Peter Friend, the director of the Oxford Transplant Centre.

Surgeons hope to perform 20 liver transplants during the pilot trial at King’s College Hospital in London, expected to last until the end of the year.

The machine is the result of nine years of research by the Oxford University team.

OrganOx was set up in 2008 but ran as a ‘virtual company’ for several years, with research done in hospitals and university labs, and manufacturing outsourced.

Dr Russell said: “At first it was just me and now we have four employees. By next April, we expect to have 16 employees.”

The new roles at Oxford Science Park include a sales and marketing manager, clinical trainer and finance staff.

Currently, transplantation depends on preserving donor organs by cooling them to slow their metabolism. But this often leads to damage.

Dr Russell said about 30,000 patients in Europe and the US were waiting for transplants.

At present, more than 2,000 livers are discarded annually, because they are either damaged by oxygen deprivation or do not survive cold preservation.