Valerie Sim

Area of Study / Keywords

---

About

I am a clinician scientist (neurologist) with an interest in rapidly progressive dementias caused by proteins that misfold.

I lead a research team looking into the pathogenesis of these diseases at the level of protein structure and the brain. We primarily study prion diseases, which include bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or mad cow disease) in cattle, chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer, elk and moose, Creutzfeldt Jakob disease (CJD) in humans, and scrapie in sheep. These diseases result when a normal protein, the prion protein (PrP), misfolds into a higher beta sheet state and aggregates in the brain. A rapid neurodegeneration follows, which, in people, usually includes dementia, ataxia, visual hallucinations and myoclonus, ending with akinetic mutism. The diseases are always fatal and there are no treatments.

Interested in learning more? Check out my lab webpage.

Fields Virology Fundamentals. 2022 October; in press

---

Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry Summer Students’ Research Day. 2021 October;

---

Wu Q., Cortez L., Kamali-Jamil R., Sim V., Wille H., Kar S.

Disease Models & Mechanisms. 2021 October; 14 (10) 10.1242/dmm.048929

---

Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry Summer Students’ Research Day. 2021 October;

---

JOURNAL OF NEURO-OPHTHALMOLOGY. 2021 July; 10.1097/WNO.0000000000001293

---

Luk C.C., Mathiason C.K., Orrù C.D., Jansen G.H., Thiele A., Caughey B., Sim V.L.

Prion. 2021 June; 15 (1):107-111 10.1080/19336896.2021.1933872

---

Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences Annual Conference on Protein Homeostasis. 2021 June;

---

Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences Annual Conference on Protein Homeostasis. 2021 June;

---

Cortez L.M., Nemani S.K., Velásquez C.D., Sriraman A., Wang Y.L., Wille H., McKenzie D., Sim V.L.

PLoS Pathogens. 2021 June; 17 (6) 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009703

---

Ali T., Hannaoui S., Nemani S., Tahir W., Zemlyankina I., Cherry P., Shim S.Y., Sim V., Schaetzl H.M., Gilch S.

Acta Neuropathologica Communications. 2021 April; 9 (1) 10.1186/s40478-021-01162-1

---

Diaz-Lucena D., Kruse N., Thüne K., Schmitz M., Villar-Piqué A., da Cunha J.E.G., Hermann P., López-Pérez Ó., Andrés-Benito P., Ladogana A., Calero M., Vidal E., Riggert J., Pineau H., Sim V., Zetterberg H., Blennow K., del Río J.A., Marín-Moreno A., Espinosa J.C., Torres J.M., Sánchez-Valle R., Mollenhauer B., Ferrer I., Zerr I., Llorens F.

ACTA NEUROPATHOLOGICA. 2021 April; 141 (6):841-859 10.1007/s00401-021-02296-1

---

North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society 47th Annual Meeting.. 2021 February;

---

Pineau H., Sim V.L.

Biomolecules. 2021 January; 11 (1):1-24 10.3390/biom11010106

---

Luk C.C., Mathiason C.K., Orrù C.D., Jansen G.H., Thiele A., Caughey B., Sim V.L.

Prion. 2021 January; 15 (1):107-111 10.1080/19336896.2021.1933872

---

Eskandari-Sedighi G., Cortez L.M., Yang J., Daude N., Shmeit K., Sim V., Westaway D.

MOLECULAR NEUROBIOLOGY. 2021 January; 58 (1):375-390 10.1007/s12035-020-02112-z

---

Nemani S.K., Myskiw J.L., Lamoureux L., Booth S.A., Sim V.L.

Viruses-Basel. 2020 December; 12 (12) 10.3390/v12121454

---

Jeon K., Joseph J.T., Jansen G.H., Peterson A., Knox J.D., Sim V.L.

Viruses-Basel. 2020 December; 12 (12) 10.3390/v12121411