Professor Mary Sheppard is a cardiac pathologist with a national and international reputation.
She is the director of unit that undertakes examination of the heart in cases of sudden cardiac death in UK. She has established a national cardiac pathology database, with funding from UK charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY), which now has over 8,000 cases on file. The unit has built up a large biobank of heart tissue and genetic material for research.
Professor Sheppard's main area of interest are the cardiac conditions that cause sudden death in young people which are mainly inherited, such as sudden arrhythmic death, cardiomyopathies including dilated cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy and idiopathic hypertrophy .
She works closely with cardiac genetics to examine phenotype/genotype expression. She also has an interest in cardiac development, anatomy and congenital heart disease.
The unit is a multiuser facility using histological techniques for diagnosis of heart disease. Scanning techniques are used to quantify changes which are diagnostic of specific cardiac diseases. The unit uses quantification and immunocytochemistry with a digital scanner for image analysis.
Professor Sheppard’s main focus is on the pathological diagnosis of sudden cardiac death. She collaborates with cardiologists who screen the families for these cardiac conditions throughout the UK. She works with scientists, as well as clinicians in understanding the pathophysiology underlying these conditions.