Professor Hugh Markus

Hugh Markus

Professor of Stroke Medicine

Email: hsm32@medschl.cam.ac.uk

Twitter: @Camstroke

Webpage: www.cambridgestroke.com

Biography 

Hugh Markus is Professor of Stroke Medicine and Honorary Consultant Neurologist in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge, UK.  His undergraduate training was at the Cambridge and clinical medical training at the University of Oxford.  He trained in Medicine at Oxford and Nottingham and in Neurology in London before being appointed as Senior Lecturer and then Reader in Neurology at King’s College London.  He then moved to Professor of Neurology at St George’s, University of London, before moving to his current post in 2013.

Research Approach:

He spends approximately half of his time in clinical care of stroke patients, including hyperacute stroke care as well as specialist stroke interests including running a National CADASIL Clinic.  His research applies genetic and imaging techniques to investigate the pathogenesis of stroke and develop new treatments. He has a particular interest in cerebral small vessel disease and vascular cognitive impairment, using MRI to investigate disease mechanisms and explore why the disease causes cognitive impairment, and developing new treatment approaches.  He is Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of stroke.

Current projects:

• The role of peripheral and central inflammation in small vessel disease and vascular cognitive impairment
• What modifies the phenotype in monogenic small vessel disease
• Genetics of small vessel disease and vascular cognitive impairment
• Targeting HDAC9 as a novel treatment for large artery stroke
• Apathy after stroke- from mechanisms to treatment

Selected Publications

1. Traylor M, Persyn E, Tomppo L, … Wardlaw J, Lewis CM, Markus HS. Genetic basis of lacunar stroke: a pooled analysis of individual patient data and genome-wide association studies. Lancet Neurol. 2021;20:351-361.
2. Cho BPH, Harshfield EL, Al-Thani M, Tozer DJ, Bell S, Markus HS. Association of Vascular Risk Factors and Genetic Factors With Penetrance of Variants Causing Monogenic Stroke. JAMA Neurol. 2022;79:1303-1311.
3. Al-Thani M, Goodwin-Trotman M, .. Markus HS, Granata A. A novel human iPSC model of COL4A1/A2 small vessel disease unveils a key pathogenic role of matrix metalloproteinases. Stem Cell Reports. 2023;18:2386-2399.
4. Markus HS, van Der Flier WM, Smith EE, …. Framework for Clinical Trials in Cerebral Small Vessel Disease (FINESSE): A Review. JAMA Neurol. 2022;79:1187-1198.
5. Debette S, Markus HS. Stroke Genetics: Discovery, Insight into Mechanisms, and Clinical Perspectives. Circ Res. 2022;130:1095-1111.

Research collaborators/links

Internal

Professor Ziad Mallet

Dr Stephen Burgess

Dr Adam Butterworth

Professor Martin Bennett