Geneva Centre for Autism

Dr Anthony Bailey became Professor and Chair of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at UBC in July 2010. He took a BSc in Experimental Pathology at the London Hospital Medical College, where he subsequently graduated in Medicine in 1982. After a year of Paediatrics he trained as a Child Psychiatrist at the Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals and Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) in London. Following an MRC Training Fellowship he became an MRC Clinical Scientist and Head of the Autism Section at The MRC Child Psychiatry Unit at the IoP, subsequently the MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre. In 2002 Dr Bailey was appointed to the Cheryl and Reece Scott Chair of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford: the first medical chair devoted to the study of autism.

Dr Bailey's research has investigated the neurobiological basis of autistic disorders, using genetic, neuropathological and neuroimaging approaches. Until his move to Canada, Dr Bailey coordinated the International Molecular Genetic Study of Autism Consortium: a large international team of clinicians and scientists brought together in 1995 to identify susceptibility genes for autism; this group published the first complete genome scan of autism and has been at the forefront of the UK’s contribution to understanding the genetic basis of autism. At Oxford Dr Bailey built the first Magnetoencephalographic Centre purpose designed for the study of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders, which was opened by HRH The Princess Royal in 2007. Dr Bailey's clinical work focuses on teenagers and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders and he has worked extensively in the developing world to assist in service development. Dr Bailey has been a Director of the Prior’s Court Foundation (a residential school for young people with autism), Research Autism (the UK Charity devoted to funding research into treatments for autism) and the Oxford Playhouse Theatre. At Oxford he was a Curator of Libraries and a member of the Committee for Museums and Scientific Collections as well as the Continuing Education Board. Dr Bailey has served as an Editor of the Journal of Neural Transmission and is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Autism Research: the Journal of the International Society of Autism Research.