Each spring, The Merrill P. Spencer, M.D. Endowed Lecture is presented in conjunction with the annual Swedish Neuroscience Institute Cerebrovascular Symposium. This year, we are pleased to welcome Dr. Hugh Markus, Professor of Neurology at St. George’s University of London.
Hugh Markus was educated in Medicine at Cambridge and Oxford Universities and then carried out medical jobs in Oxford, London and Nottingham before training in neurology in London. He was senior lecturer and subsequently, reader in neurology at Kings College London before moving to the chair of neurology at St George’s in 2000.
His clinical interests are in stroke, and he is clinical lead for stroke at St George’s Hospital. He is involved in both acute stroke care and outpatient stroke clinics, and runs specialist services for patients with sub cortical vascular disease and genetic forms of stroke.
His research interests are in applying molecular genetic and imaging techniques to investigate the pathogenesis of stroke. Genetic studies are primarily trying to identify genetic causes of sporadic stroke and he is the principal investigator for the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 2 Ischemic Stroke Study, which is performing a large genome-wide association study in ischemic stroke. The imaging techniques he uses are Transcranial Doppler emboli detection and MRI.
His postdoctoral thesis was on emboli detection, which involved experimental studies validating the technique and early clinical studies applying it to patients with a variety of potential embolic sources. He has carried out a number of studies showing that embolic signals predict stroke in carotid artery stenosis, and pioneered the use of the technique to evaluate anti-platelet therapies. He was also principal investigator for the CARESS study. Recently, he finished the Asymptomatic Carotid Emboli Study (ACES) which demonstrated that embolic signals predict risk in asymptomatic carotid stenosis.
The first international conference which Dr. Markus attended was a Transcranial Doppler ultrasound workshop organized by Merrill Spencer, M.D. in the early 1990s.
Hugh Markus, B.M., B.Ch., D.M., FRCP
