Update Your ProfileAcademic Title:
Adjunct Associate Professor
Primary Appointment:
Medicine
Email:
Location:
HSF1, 480
Phone (Primary):
410-706-5328
Education and Training
University of California, Santa Barbara, B.S., Microbiology, 2001
University of California, Santa Barbara, M.A., Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, 2003
University of California, Santa Barbara, Ph.D., Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, 2007
Fellowship, University of Maryland School of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Research Service Award (NRSA) T32, Vaccinology, 2009-2011
Biosketch
The goal of Dr. Simon’s research is the development of vaccines to prevent invasive infections with bacterial pathogens, including Salmonella enterica and Klebsiella pneumoniae. A main area of focus is the development of polysaccharide:protein glycoconjugate vaccines based on the O polysaccharide (OPS) of lipopolysaccharide with novel carrier proteins. This involves the development of novel purification techniques to obtain protein and polysaccharide vaccine antigens, synthesis and biochemical characterization of vaccine constructs, assessment of immunogenicity and vaccine protective efficacy, and biological analyses of antibody function in-vitro.
Research/Clinical Keywords
Vaccine, glycoconjugate, bacteria, Salmonella, Klebsiella, Pseudomonas, polysaccharide, flagellin.
Highlighted Publications
Ramachandran G, Tennant SM, Boyd MA, Wang JY, Tulapurkar ME, Pasetti MF, Levine MM, Simon R. Functional activity of antibodies directed towards flagellin proteins of non-typhoidal Salmonella. PLoS One. 2016 Mar 21;11(3):e0151875.
Simon R, Wang JY, Boyd MA, Tulaparkur EM, Ramachandran G, Tennant SM, Pasetti MF, Galen JE, Levine MM. Sustained protection in mice immunized with fractional doses of Salmonella Enteritidis core and O polysaccharide-flagellin glycoconjugates. PLoS One. 2013 May 31;8(5):e64680.
Simon R and Levine MM. Glycoconjugate vaccine strategies for protection against invasive Salmonella infections. Hum. Vacc. Immunother. 2012 Apr;8(4):494-498.
Simon R, Tennant SM, Wang JY, Schmidlein PJ, Lees A, Ernst RK, Pasetti MF, Galen JE, Levine MM. Salmonella enterica core O polysaccharide (COPS) conjugated to H:g,m flagellin as a candidate vaccine for protection against invasive infection with S. Enteritidis. Infect. Immun. 2011 Oct;79(10):4240-9.
Additional Publication Citations
Simon R, Curtis B, Deumic V, Nicki J, Tennant SM, Pasetti MF, Lees A, Wills PW, Chacon M, Levine MM. A scalable method for biochemical purification of Salmonella flagellin. Protein Expr. Purif. 2014 Jul;19(102C):1-7.
Simon R, Tennant SM, Galen JE, Levine MM. Mouse models to assess the efficacy of non-typhoidal Salmonella vaccines: Revisiting the role of host innate susceptibility and routes of challenge. Vaccine. 2011 29(32):5094-5106.
Awards and Affiliations
2011: National Foundation for Infectious Disease Maurice R. Hilleman Early-Stage Career Investigator Award
Lab Techniques and Equipment
The Simon lab is capable of large scale antigen production, purification, and characterization. Equipment and techniques employed include bacterial fermentation, tangential flow filtration, FPLC chromatography, analytical HPLC, and HPAEC-PAD monosaccharide analysis.