Valerie Sim

Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry - Medicine Dept
Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry - Medicine Dept Neurology

Contact

Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry - Medicine Dept
Email
vsim@ualberta.ca

Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry - Medicine Dept Neurology
Email
valerie.sim@ualberta.ca
Phone
(780) 492-9377
Address
204 Brain And Aging Research Building
8710 - 112 St NW
Edmonton AB
T6G 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