Dr Marc Bailey

Profile

I originally completed my undergraduate medical training in Leeds graduating MB ChB with honours in 2008 having also completed an intercalated BSc in Anatomy (First Class Hons). Following this, I undertook the Academic Foundation Programme rotation in vascular medicine & surgery in West Yorkshire before securing an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship in Vascular Surgery within the Yorkshire & Humber School of Surgery (2010-2012). I obtained a PGCert in Medical Research at the University of Leeds in 2011 alongside my MRCS from the Royal College of Surgeons of England, London.

I was awarded a BHF Clinical Research Training Fellowship to fund my PhD in the lab of Professor David Beech within the Faculty of Biological Sciences in Leeds in 2012 focussed on ion channels in vascular disease. In 2015/2016 I was the national Circulation Foundation / Royal College of Surgeons of England Surgeon Scientist Fellow moving back to the School of Medicine and was appointed as a University Academic Fellow / Honorary NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in Vascular Surgery in 2016. I have held a variety of external research grants (MRC, BHF, EPSRC), in 2018 I was awarded a BHF Intermediate Clinical Research Fellowship and in 2019 was appointed Associate Professor of Vascular Medicine.

Responsibilities

• LICAMM Action Group Lead for Communications, Events & Alumni
• ePIC Modality Lead for Optical Imaging & Ultrasound

Research interests

My main research interest is in understanding the vascular biology underpinning abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) disease. AAA is a progressive, focal dilatation of the abdominal aorta that is progressive towards rupture. Risk factors include male sex, hypertension and smoking. AAA is detected incidentally or through screening and is then monitored by ultrasound until it reaches the "intervention threshold" of 5.5cm. At this point, intervention is offered via open surgery or endovascular repair. These approaches confer risk in terms or morbidity, mortality and quality of life decline. Patients are typically under surveillance for around 7 years before being offered intervention. A medical therapy to slow disease progression and avoid the need for intervention is lacking.

My group is working to better understand the biology at play and seeks to use this knowledge in order to develop novel therapeutic approaches. Our main focus is on the role of the vascular smooth muscle cell in the disease and to identify novel targets within these cells. I have a growing interest in how the discoveries we make in AAA can then be applied to other cardiovascular diseases with shared pathophysiological mechanisms, for example: atherosclerosis, neointimal hyperplasia, cardiac failure and pulmonary hypertension.  

Research Group Members

Lucinda Craggs - Lucy is a PDRA on my BHF Project Grant

Karen Hemmings - Karen is a PDRA on my BHF Intermediate Fellowship

Mohammed Waduud - Mohammed is a BHF Clinical Research Training Fellow 

Richa Gandhi - Richa is an EPSRC doctoral fellow through the School of Engineering

Qualifications

• BSc (hons)
• MB ChB (hons)
• PhD
• PGCert (health res)
• MRCS

Professional memberships

• Royal College of Surgeons (Eng)
• Higher Education Authority (Associate Fellow)
• Vascular Society of Great Britain & Ireland
• Medical Protection Society

Student education

I am actively involved in vascular surgical teaching on the undergraduate medical curriculum in Leeds. This is mainly focussed on clinical teaching within the hospital and end of year examinations in years 3 and 5 of the MB ChB course. I also teach similar topics to allied health professionals (e.g. cardiac physiology undergraduates). I supervise a range of undergraduate projects and post-graduate research students from both a clinical and non-clinical background and teach on our flagship BHF-funded 4 year PhD programme. I serve as a mentor to clinical academic trainees in the region on the NIHR clinical academic integrated training pathway and am part of our institutional coaching scheme.

Research groups and institutes

• Leeds Institute of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine
• Discovery and Translational Science
• Cardiometabolic
• LICAMM - international PhD academy
• British Heart Foundation - Cardiovascular research
• Multidisciplinary Cardiovascular Research Centre

Current postgraduate researchers

• Kath Norman
• Emily Woodhouse

Projects

<li><a href="//phd.leeds.ac.uk/project/1359-licamm-orai1-snps-and-peripheral-arterial-disease-severity-using-ct-angiography-imaging-features">LICAMM Orai1 SNPs and Peripheral Arterial Disease severity using CT angiography imaging features</a></li> <li><a href="//phd.leeds.ac.uk/project/1360-licamm-vascular-smooth-muscle-cell-orai1-and-vascular-disease">LICAMM Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Orai1 and vascular disease</a></li>