Jonathan Simons

Jonathan W. Simons, M.D.
Born	November 18, 1958 (1958-11-18) (age 52) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Residence	United States
Institutions	Prostate Cancer Foundation
Alma mater	Princeton University Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Jonathan W. Simons, MD (born November 18, 1958) is an internationally recognized physician-scientist, medical oncologist, and leader in prostate cancer research. Simons is currently President, Chief Executive Officer, and David H. Koch Chair of the Prostate Cancer Foundation. Simons’ laboratories at Johns Hopkins University and Emory University made original contributions in the molecular biology of interleukin-6, endothelin-1, HIF-1alpha cytokines in human prostate cancer metastasis, and in immunotherapy and genetic therapy of metastatic prostate cancer.

Simons was raised in Ithaca, New York. He is married to Plum Simons and has two sons, Alexander and Samuel. He is the husband, son, and grandson of cancer survivors. Simons’ father, Professor David M. Simons of Cornell University, was among the first thousand patients cured of relapsed Hodgkin’s Lymphoma as a part of participation in national clinical trials that were personally witnessed by Simons while in high school. Simons is the grandson of leading New Dealer Professor M.L. Wilson who served as Under Secretary of Agriculture under President Franklin Roosevelt. Simons received an A.B magna cum laude from Princeton University in biochemistry in 1980. Before entering medical school, Simons was a Rotary International Postgraduate Fellow in the Humanities at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, and a Nuffield Foundation Fellow in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge. Simons received an MD from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1985. Simons completed his residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, and completed a clinical fellowship in medical oncology at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center. Simons was board-certified in internal medicine and medical oncology. At Johns Hopkins, Simons completed a three year post-doctoral fellowship under Dr. Bert Vogelstein in human cancer molecular genetics—before Simons was appointed to the Hopkins medical school faculty in the Oncology Center and Brady Urological Institute in 1991. Simons’ career development mentor was Dr. Donald S. Coffey,Director of the Brady Urological Institute of Johns Hopkins. Simons was a National Cancer Institute Career Development K-Award recipient of the Physician-Scientist Award and biomedical device inventor. Prior to receiving funding from the NCI and the DoD CDMRP, Simons' first independent laboratory research grant was from the Prostate Cancer Foundation (formerly CaPCure) in the foundation’s first year of existence.

In 2000, Simons was recruited by Georgia governor Roy Barnes and the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation of Atlanta to be the Founding Director of the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University. In addition to leading 41 faculty recruitments, and leading the construction of a new dedicated $90M cancer institute building for the NCI Designated Cancer Center, Simons co-directed with Dr. Shuming Nie the National Cancer Institute Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence at Emory and Georgia Institute of Technology.^[1] Before he was recruited by the Board of the Prostate Cancer Foundation, Simons was a Distinguished Service Professor of Hematology and Oncology at the Emory University School of Medicine, and Professor of Materials Sciences Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Simons led the creation of the Georgia State Cancer Plan Georgia’s tobacco settlement investment in cancer research and new faculty recruitment programs within the Georgia Cancer Coalition.^[2] On May 20, 2010, Simons made a statement before the United States House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, summarizing a decade of progress made by the Prostate Cancer Research Program of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs.^[3]

With Michael Milken, Chairman of the Board of FastCures, Simons created the strategic plan and as interim chief science officer launched the Melanoma Research Alliance, which was founded by Debra and Leon Black in 2007.^[4] Dr. Simons is on the Board of Director of FasterCures and served as the interim chief science officer of the Melanoma Research Alliance during its 2 year launch period.

References

1. ^ "WCGTCCNE". http://www.wcigtccne.org. Retrieved 2011-04.13. ^{[dead link]}
2. ^ "Georgia Cancer Coalition". http://www.georgiacancer.org. Retrieved 2011-04-13. 
3. ^ "Statement to the United States House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense". http://www.pcf.org/atf/cf/%7B7C77D6A2-5859-4D60-AF47-132FD0F85892%7D/JWS_SubcommitteeDefense_Final.pdf. Retrieved 2011-04-13. 
4. ^ "Melanoma Research Alliance". http://www.melanomaresearchalliance.org. Retrieved 2011-04-13. 

• Chung, W. L. K, Isaacs, W. & Simons, J. W., eds. (2007) Prostate Cancer: biology, genetics, and the new therapeutics. 2nd ed. Humana Press
• Nano cancer investigation

Persondata
Name	Simons, Jonathan
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Date of birth	1958-11-18
Place of birth	Washington, D.C., U.S.
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