Bio

Backpacking through the canyons of southern Utah as a child left me with a sense of wonder at the diversity of life and its extraordinary ability to adapt and thrive in specific environments. Inspired by these experiences, I pursued a bachelor’s degree in Biology at Boston University with a specialization in neuroscience. My interest in neuroscience was greatly enhanced by undergraduate research opportunities in the laboratories of Robert Hausman at Boston University and Robert Marc at the University of Utah (John A. Moran Eye Center). During my Ph.D. research in the laboratories of Dzwokai Ma and Karen Szumlinski at UC Santa Barbara, I developed a passion for molecular and cellular biology and used molecular techniques on projects ranging in scale from purified biomolecules to whole organism behavior. After completing my Ph.D., I worked at Ionis Pharmaceuticals on cell biology questions related to the development of nucleic acid-based therapeutics. Currently, I am interested in the differentiation of human stem cells for cellular therapies as well as the development of molecular assays and tools for use in academia and industry.

Selected Publications

Bailey, J.K., Ma, D., and Clegg, D.O. (2024). Initial Characterization of WDR5B Reveals a Role in the Proliferation of Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells. Cells 13, 1189. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells13141189.

Leung, J., Pollalis, D., Nair, G.K.G., Bailey, J.K., Pennington, B.O., Khan, A.I., Kelly, K.R., Yeh, A.K., Sundaram, K.S., Clegg, D.O., Peng, C.-C., Xu, L., and Lee, S.Y. (2024). Isolation and Characterization of Extracellular Vesicles Through Orthogonal Approaches for the Development of Intraocular EV Therapy. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science 65, 6. https://doi.org/10.1167/iovs.65.3.6.

Humayun, M.S., Clegg, D.O., Dayan, M.S., Kashani, A.H., Rahhal, F.M., Avery, R.L., Salehi-Had, H., Chen, S., Chan, C., Palejwala, N., Ingram, A., Mitra, D., Pennington, B.O., Hinman, C., Faynus, M.A., Bailey, J.K., Johnson, L.V., and Lebkowski, J.S. (2024). Long-term Follow-up of a Phase 1/2a Clinical Trial of a Stem Cell-Derived Bioengineered Retinal Pigment Epithelium Implant for Geographic Atrophy. Ophthalmology 131, 682–691. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ophtha.2023.12.028.

Faynus, M.A., Bailey, J.K., Pennington, B.O., Katsura, M., Proctor, D.A., Yeh, A.K., Menon, S., Choi, D.G., Clegg, D.O., Lebkowski, J.S., and Johnson, L.V. (2022). Microcarrier-Based Culture of Human Pluripotent Stem-Cell-Derived Retinal Pigmented Epithelium. Bioengineering 9, 297. https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering9070297.

Kashani, A.H., Lebkowski, J.S., Hinton, D.R., Zhu, D., Faynus, M.A., Chen, S., Rahhal, F.M., Avery, R.L., Salehi-Had, H., Chan, C., Palejwala, N., Ingram, A., Dang, W., Lin, C.-M., Mitra, D., Martinez-Camarillo, J.C., Bailey, J., Arnold, C., Pennington, B.O., Rao, N., Johnson, L.V., Clegg, D.O., and Humayun, M.S. (2022). Survival of an HLA-mismatched, bioengineered RPE implant in dry age-related macular degeneration. Stem Cell Reports 17, 448–458. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stemcr.2022.01.001.

Kashani, A.H., Lebkowski, J.S., Rahhal, F.M., Avery, R.L., Salehi-Had, H., Chen, S., Chan, C., Palejwala, N., Ingram, A., Dang, W., Lin, C.-M., Mitra, D., Pennington, B.O., Hinman, C., Faynus, M.A., Bailey, J.K., Mohan, S., Rao, N., Johnson, L.V., Clegg, D.O., Hinton, D.R., and Humayun, M.S. (2021). One-Year Follow-Up in a Phase 1/2a Clinical Trial of an Allogeneic RPE Cell Bioengineered Implant for Advanced Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration. Translational Vision Science & Technology 10, 13. https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.10.10.13.

Pennington, B.O., Bailey, J.K., Faynus, M.A., Hinman, C., Hee, M.N., Ritts, R., Nadar, V., Zhu, D., Mitra, D., Martinez-Camarillo, J.C., Lin, T.-C., Thomas, B.B., Hinton, D.R., Humayun, M.S., Lebkowski, J., Johnson, L.V., and Clegg, D.O. (2021). Xeno-free cryopreservation of adherent retinal pigmented epithelium yields viable and functional cells in vitro and in vivo. Scientific Reports 11, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85631-6.

Bailey, J.K., Shen, W., Liang, X., and Crooke, S.T. (2017). Nucleic acid binding proteins affect the subcellular distribution of phosphorothioate antisense oligonucleotides. Nucleic Acids Research 45, 10649–10671. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkx709.

Shen, W., Sun, H., De Hoyos, C.L., Bailey, J.K., Liang, X., and Crooke, S.T. (2017). Dynamic nucleoplasmic and nucleolar localization of mammalian RNase H1 in response to RNAP I transcriptional R-loops. Nucleic Acids Research 45, 10672–10692. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkx710.

Bailey JK, Ma D. (2016) Cellular functions of MLL/SET-family histone H3 lysine 4 methyltransferase components. Frontiers in Biology 11, 10-18.

Bailey JK, Fields AT, Cheng K, Lee A, Wagenaar E, Lagrois R, Schmidt B, Xia B, Ma D. (2015) WD repeat-containing protein 5 (WDR5) localizes to the midbody and regulates abscission. J Biol Chem 290, 8987-9001.

Bailey JK, Ma D, Szumlinski KK. (2012) Rapamycin attenuates the expression of cocaine-induced place preference and behavioral sensitization. Addict Biol 17, 248-258.

Xu Z, Xia B, Gong Q, Bailey JK, Groves B, Radeke M, Wood SA, Szumlinski KK, and Ma D. (2010) Identification of a deubiquitinating enzyme as a novel AGS3-interacting protein. PLoS One 5, e9725.

Groves B, Abrahamsen H, Clingan H, Frantz M, Mavor L, Bailey JK, Ma D. (2010) An inhibitory role of the G-protein regulator AGS3 in mTOR-dependent macroautophagy. PLoS One 5, e8877.

News Articles

UCSB Current - Illuminating The Dark Zone

Patents and Patent Applications:

Pennington, B.O., Bailey, J.K., Faynus, M.A., Arnold, C., Johnson, L.V., Clegg, D.O., Humayun, M.S., Hinton, D.R., Zhu, D., Mitra, D. 2023. Therapeutic Supernatant from Cell-Seeded Substrates and Related Methods. U.S. Application No. 18/483,917, filed October 10, 2023.

Pennington, B.O., Bailey, J.K., Faynus, M.A., Arnold, C., Johnson, L.V., Clegg, D.O., Humayun, M.S., Hinton, D.R., Zhu, D., Mitra, D. 2023. Cryopreservation of Cell-Seeded Substrates and Related Methods. US Patent 11,825,839, filed August 30, 2019, and issued November 28, 2023.