Melvin Simon Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology Ph.D., Brandeis University Phone: 858-534-6886 Fax: E-mail: m1simon@ucsd.edu

Key Words:

Dr. Simon’s most recent contributions have advanced our understanding of signal transduction and intracellular signaling in animal cells. He is currently working on the mechanisms involved in G protein function. G-protein subunits play a crucial role in transmitting signals from cell surface receptors resulting in changes in intracellular metabolism. They are central to the visual, gustatory, olfactory and nervous systems function in complex organisms. Dr. Simon’s laboratory played a major role in the characterization of the genes that encode the subunit proteins that make up the G protein family. He and his co-workers have generated a variety of mutant mice deficient in components of the G-protein signaling cascade. Their work on the visual system together with Dr. Denis Baylor’s laboratory at Stanford has helped to define the in vivo function of elements of the G-protein mediated phototransduction cascade, and the molecular mechanisms involved in retinal degeneration. More recently Dr. Simon has been working on G-protein receptors that are involved in nociception and in microglial function in brain inflammation.

Recent Publications

Shi, G., S. Partida-Sánchez, R. S. Misra, M. Tighe, M. T. Borchers, J. .J. Lee, M. I. Simon and F. E. Lund. Identification of an alternative G[alpha]q-dependent chemokine receptor signal transduction pathway in dendritic cells and granulocytes. J. Exp. Med. 204, 2705-2718, 2007.

Zavzavadjian JR, Couture S, Park WS, Whalen J, Lyon S, Lee G, Fung E, Mi Q, Liu J, Wall E, Santat L, Dhandapani K, Kivork C, Driver A, Zhu X, Chang MS, Randhawa B, Gehrig E, Bryan H, Verghese M, Maer A, Saunders B, Ning Y, Subramaniam S, Meyer T, Simon MI, O’Rourke N, Chandy G, Fraser ID. The alliance for cellular signaling plasmid collection: a flexible resource for protein localization studies and signaling pathway analysis Mol. Cell Proteomics. 6, 413-424, 2007.

Zhu X, Santat LA, Chang MS, Liu J, Zavzavadjian JR, Wall EA, Kivork C, Simon MI, Fraser ID. A versatile approach to multiple gene RNA interference using microRNA-based short hairpin RNAs. BMC Mol Biol 8, 98-104, 2007.

Roach TI, Rebres RA, Fraser ID, Decamp DL, Mean-Lin K, Sternweis PC, Simon MI, Seaman WE. Signaling and cross-talk by C5a and UDP in macrophages selectively use PLCbeta3 to regulate intracellular free calcium J. Biol Chem. 2008

Slep KC, Kercher MA, Wieland T, Chen CK, Simon MI, Sigler PB. Molecular architecture of Galphao and the structural basis for RGS16-mediated deactivation Proc. Natl Acad Sci USA 105, 6243-6248. 2008