J. Marc Simard, MD, PhD

B.A. - Chemistry, St. Anselm's College, Manchester, NH, 06/1972
M.D., Ph.D. - Neuroscience, Creighton University, Omaha, NE, 05/1980
Postdoc - Biophysics, Universitat des Saarlandes, Homberg, Germany, 12/1983
Residency - Neurosurgery, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 06/1986

Dr. Simard is Professor of Neurosurgery, Pathology and Physiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He is a board-certified clinical neurosurgeon with an active practice of neurosurgery. He specializes in vascular neurosurgery, which includes the surgery and management of patients with stroke, subarachnoid hemorrhage and other vascular lesions of the brain. He also serves as chief of Neurological Surgery at the Baltimore Veteran's Affairs Medical Center.

Dr. Simard is an experienced investigative scientist who is responsible for the original discovery of the Sur1-Trpm4 channel (previously, the Sur1-regulated NCCa-ATP channel) 15 years ago, and for initiating the work showing involvement of the channel in acute diseases of the CNS. He heads an active laboratory focused on acute CNS pathology that employs numerous scientists with expertise in patch clamp electrophysiology, molecular biology, transcriptional regulation, and preclinical models of disease.

In recent years, the laboratory has focused heavily on studies of the Sur1-Trpm4 channel in acute CNS diseases including subarachnoid and intraventricular hemorrhage, stroke, hemorrhagic forms of encephalopathy of prematurity, and traumatic brain and spinal cord injury. His work on the Sur1-Trpm4 channel has led to the award of 21 US and international patents. Notably, these basic science discoveries have matured to the point that clinical trials are now underway to translate those basic discoveries into improved patient care.

Simard JM, Chen M, Tarasov KV, Bhatta S, Ivanova S, Melnitchenko L, Tsymbalyuk N, West GA, Gerzanich V. Newly expressed SUR1-regulated NCCa-ATP channel mediates cerebral edema after ischemic stroke. Nat Med 2006;12(4):433-40. PM:16550187

Sheth KN, Elm JJ, Molyneaux BJ, Hinson H, Beslow LA, Sze GK, Ostwaldt AC, Del Zoppo GJ, Simard JM, Jacobson S, Kimberly WT. Safety and efficacy of intravenous glyburide on brain swelling after large hemispheric infarction (GAMES-RP): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2 trial. Lancet Neurol 2016;15:1160-9. PMID: 27567243

Urday S, Kimberly WT, Beslow LA, Vortmeyer AO, Selim MH, Rosand J, Simard JM, Sheth KN. Targeting secondary injury in intracerebral haemorrhage--perihaematomal oedema. Nat Rev Neurol 2015;11(2):111-22. PM:25623787

Simard JM, Aldrich EF, Schreibman D, James RF, Polifka A, Beaty N. Low-dose intravenous heparin infusion in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage: a preliminary assessment. J Neurosurg 2013;119(6):1611-9. PM:24032706

Simard JM, Woo SK, Norenberg MD, Tosun C, Chen Z, Ivanova S, Tsymbalyuk O, Bryan J, Landsman D, Gerzanich V. Brief suppression of Abcc8 prevents autodestruction of spinal cord after trauma. Sci Transl Med 2010;2(28):28ra29. PM:20410530