Profile

Mark is a physician scientist training in Clinical Immunology at the Immunodeficiency Centre for Wales, Cardiff, United Kingdom (UK).

His training to date highlights a track record of commitment to excellence in clinical research. Graduating with distinction in Clinical Medicine and degree in Molecular Medicine from Oxford Medical School, he subsequently gained medical registration with the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP UK) with specific placements in respiratory medicine, rheumatology, cardiology, and vascular surgery providing relevant clinical exposure to a career in Clinical Immunology. Mark recently completed the King’s College Medical Immunology MSc top of the year alongside Part I for the Royal College of Pathology Examinations. These were conducted alongside clinical practice in Cardiff, demonstrating time management, laboratory skills, and capability for cross-site working.

Mark’s clinical roles have included coordination of the All-Wales Primary Immunodeficiency Bone Marrow Transplant Multi-disciplinary Team. This setting continues to provide unique insights into extreme and rare manifestations of human illness caused by monogenic disorders, leading to a particular interest in how mutations in the STAT3 gene lead to multi-system effects from immune deficiency, infection, to widespread vascular abnormalities (tortuosity, ectasia, and aneurysms).

To date, Mark has led development and delivery of 5 REC-approved observational clinical studies, which have all resulted in successful international presentation & publications. This included the first description of clozapine-associated hypogammaglobulinaemia, allowing Mark to spearhead a successful multi-disciplinary team funding bid for a national validation study (£229k) and win appointment as a Welsh Clinical Academic Trainee (WCAT) Lecturer. Whilst a specialist immunology trainee he also helped setup and coordinate the Burden of Infection in Primary Antibody Deficiency (BIPAD) study. By performing detailed longitudinal symptom and pathogen profiling in patients and healthy controls, this study charts the difference in symptoms and infections that remains despite current medical therapies.

The COVID-19 pandemic has demanded a pivot in Mark’s doctoral study time towards understanding of epidemiological and immunological risk factors for development of severe disease following SARS-CoV-2 infection.