Thomas Simmen Email & Phone Number

My laboratory focuses on the characterization of connections between the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondria and their role in disease. We are interested in understanding how mitochondria influence ER homeostasis and how ER stress triggers ER-mitochondria calcium exchange and eventually apoptosis. We examine why tumor cells often are defective for these signaling mechanisms, resulting in the excessive toxin production by tumor cells that would normally trigger apoptosis, but which fail to do so in a cancer setting. Additionally, we examine the significance of the MAM in neuroinflammation. My research has been published in the EMBO Journal, Developmental Cell and the Journal of Cell Science, among others. I have published 10 papers that have been cited at least 5 times a year, leading to an overall h-index of 21. Since its start-up in 2005, my laboratory has been awarded with an operating grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), 2 operating grants from the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute (CCSRI) and the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) each, and one Cancer Research Society (CRS) grant, among others.

Listed skills include University Teaching, Molecular Biology, Microscopy, Biochemistry, and 3 others.