By mapping the spatial patterns of diseases such as pancreatic cancer, and chronic pancreatitis the lab aims to uncover the underlying mechanisms of disease development and progression. This includes studying how tumor cells, inflammatory cells, or fibrosis are spatially organized and interact with other cells and tissues.

To bridge discovery and clinical benefit, the lab develops and uses patient-derived organoids (PDOs). These 3D "mini-tumors" grown from a patient's own tumor tissue, overcome the limitations of traditional 2D cell lines. PDOs offer high fidelity, recapitulating the genetics, histology, and heterogeneity of the original tumor, and can be established with high success rates from small biopsy samples.

Tumor evolution, driven by intratumor heterogeneity (ITH) and phenotypic plasticity, is a primary cause of therapeutic failure. The Bailey Laboratory investigates the genetic and non-genetic mechanisms sustaining this diversity. Recent work from the Bailey and Corbo labs, published in Nature, has identified extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) as a major source of genomic heterogeneity and adaptability in PDAC. ecDNAs are small, circular DNA elements that exist outside of the chromosomes and can carry key oncogenes.

The Bailey laboratory is using spatial omics technologies to build a high-resolution atlas of pancreatic cancer, conceptualizing the tumor as a pathological organ. These methods integrate molecular profiling with spatial tissue context, allowing for the analysis of gene expression, protein interactions, and metabolic states within their original architectural framework.