Valerie Sim
Contact
Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry - Medicine Dept Neurology
- valerie.sim@ualberta.ca
- Phone
- (780) 492-9377
- Address
-
204 Brain And Aging Research Building
8710 - 112 St NWEdmonton ABT6G 2M8
Overview
Area of Study / Keywords
About
I am a (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, 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 .
Featured Publications
Fields Virology Fundamentals. 2022 October; in press
A new method for the separation and characterization of amyloid beta and tau aggregates in human brain samples
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
Production and Purification of Recombinant Low Affinity IgE Receptor, FCERII (CD23)
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
Selective conversion of post-translationally modified prion protein by RML strain prions.
Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences Annual Conference on Protein Homeostasis. 2021 June;
Investigating prion strain tropism in whole brain organotypic slice culture. CSMB posters
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
Visual disturbances and headache as presenting symptoms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
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