13 Facts About Mark Pepys

Sir Mark Brian Pepys was born on 18 September 1944 and is a South African-born British academic of medicine.

Mark Pepys was until 2011 Professor of Medicine at University College London and Head of Medicine at the Hampstead Campus and the Royal Free Hospital.

Mark Pepys finished his early education at the University of Cambridge, and then qualified as a medical doctor at University College London Medical School.

Mark Pepys then returned to Cambridge where he was awarded a PhD in Immunology in 1973.

In 1998, Mark Pepys was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Mark Pepys has made seminal contributions in three areas: complement and immune response, the pentraxin proteins, and amyloidosis, and is a leading authority on these subjects in the UK and internationally.

Mark Pepys discovered the role of complement in induction of antibody production and antigen localisation to germinal centres.

Mark Pepys has pioneered work on the structure, function and clinical applications of the pentraxins, C-reactive protein and serum amyloid P component, and identified most of the known members of this valuable aid to patient management.

Mark Pepys discovered the capacity of SAP for calcium-dependent binding, which underlies its universal deposition in amyloid, described its interaction with DNA in-vivo and in-vitro, and its ability to solubilise chromatin, and identified SAP as a normal tissue protein.

Mark Pepys introduced radiolabelled SAP as a diagnostic in-vivo tracer for amyloid, which has revolutionised knowledge of the natural history of amyloidosis and its response to treatment.

Mark Pepys has discovered that variants of lysozyme can form amyloid and identified the first mutations in the human lysozyme gene, as well as novel amyloidogenic variants of apolipoprotein AI and transthyretin.

Mark Pepys has recently won the 2008 Ernst Chain Prize for his work on amyloid diseases, established by Imperial College London in recognition of leaders in their fields.

Mark Pepys was knighted in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to biomedicine.