SIDNEY SIMON
Professor, Department of Neurobiology

Contact Information
427E Bryan Research Bldg
919-694-4178 phone
919-684-4431 fax
sas@neuro.duke.edu

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Education

	PhD	A study of the material and solvent properties of liquid crystal membranes, Materials Science, Northwestern University, 1973
	MS	Ni idea, Physics, Arizona State University, 1968
	BS	Physics, Indiana Institute of Technology, 1965

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Experience

	1988 - present	Professor, Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Professor Department of Biomedical Engineering
	1987 - 1988	Professor, Department of Physiology, Duke University
	1981 - 1987	Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, Duke University
	1977 - 1980	Assistant Professor, Depts. Physiology and Anesthesiology, Duke University
	1975 - 1977	Medical Research Assistant Professor, Depts. of Physiology and Pharmacology, Duke University
	1974 - 1975	Associate, Depts. of Physiology and Pharmacology, Duke University
	1973 - 1974	Research Associate, Depts. Physiology and Pharmacology, Duke University

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Selected Publications

1. Liu, L., Oortgiesen, M., Li, L., and Simon, S. A. (2001) Capsaicin inhibits activation of voltage-gated sodium currents in capsaicin-sensitive trigeminal ganglion neurons. J. Neurophysiol. 85:745-758.
2. Welch, J. M., Simon, S. A. and Reinhart, P. H. (2000) The activation mechanism of VR1 by capsaicin involves the pore domain and differs from the activation by either acid or heat. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 97: (25) 13889-13894
3. Katz, D. B., Simon, S. A. and Nicolelis, M. A. L. N. (2001) Dynamic and multimodal responses of gustatory cortical neurons in awake rats. J. Neurosci. 21: 4478-4489.
4. McIntosh, T. J. Vidal, A. and Simon, S. A. (2003) Sorting of Lipids and Transmembrane Peptides Between Detergent Soluble Bilayers and Detergent Resistant Rafts. Biophysical Journal (in press).
5. Simon, S. A., Liu, L., Erickson, R. P. (2003) Neuropeptides modulate chorda tympani responses in a tastant specific manner. Am. J. Physiol. (in press)
   

 

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Synergistic Activities

	1998 – present	Duke University Provost’s Academic Priorities Committee
	1992 – present	Chairman of the Committee on Minority Recruiting, Department of Neurobiology, Duke University
	1999 – 2000	NIH-NIDR Study Section
	1988 – 1991	Director of Graduate Studies, Dept. of Neurobiology, Duke University

 

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Research Support

Dr. Simon is PI on 3 active grants: NIH (DC01065-10); NIH (ES09844-01A2); and Philip Morris Inc. (no ID#)

Dr. Simon is an investigator on 1 active grants: NIH(GM27278-20) – Thomas McIntosh (PI)

 

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Short Research Interest Descriptor

I have several interests ranging from the sorting of proteins to pain and inflammation to systems neurobiology regarding multimodal interactions between the taste and somatosensory systems.

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Research Interest

I am interested in and do research in the following areas:

• Pain and Inflammation: I am trying to develop selective analgesics.
• Air pollution: I am working to understand how particles in the air, called particulate matter (PM) that arises from both natural (volcanoes) and man-made sources (car exhausts) produce their harmful effects. There is a linear relationship between the PM concentration and mortality.
• Peptide sorting. How do peptides sort in biological membranes? We are interested in determining the underlying physical principles.
• Gustatory neurobiology. I am investigating how the brain encodes multimodal stimuli. This is most apparent in the taste system where chemical stimuli in the mouth and nose are combined with mechanical and thermal stimuli to produce a percept that will lead to a decision being made whether you will swallow the stimuli.
  

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