Jonathan Simons

Jonathan W. Simons, MD is a physician-scientist, medical oncologist, and an internationally recognized leader in prostate cancer research. Simons is currently the 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 to prostate cancer immunotherapy after inventing GM-CSF genetically engineered vaccines for prostate cancer. Young physician-scientists in the Simons’ laboratories made original discoveries on the roles of interleukin-6, endothelin-1, and HIF-1alpha genes in the molecular biology of human prostate cancer metastasis.

Biography

Simons was raised in Ithaca, New York. He is the husband, son, and grandson of cancer survivors. Simons’ father, David M. Simons, a professor at Cornell University, was among the first thousand patients cured of relapsed Hodgkin’s Lymphoma as a part of participation in National Cancer Institute clinical trials. Simons is the grandson of M.L. Wilson, who served as the Under Secretary of Agriculture under President Franklin Roosevelt. Simons graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University with an A.B. in biochemistry in 1980. Before entering medical school, Simons studied as 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 degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1985. Simons completed his residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and 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, and supported by a 5-year National Institutes of Health Physician-Scientist K-Award, Simons completed a full post-doctoral fellowship under Bert Vogelstein in human cancer molecular genetics prior to being appointed to the Hopkins medical school faculty in oncology and urology in 1991. On the Hopkins faculty, Simons chaired the Hopkins medical school Curriculum Committee for Oncology from 1990-2000. Prior to receiving funding from the NCI and the Department of Defense for prostate cancer research, Simons' first independent laboratory research grant was from the Prostate Cancer Foundation (formerly known as CaPCure) in the Foundation’s first year of existence in 1993.

At 41 years old, 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 and Chair of Hematology and Oncology at the Emory Clinic. 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.^[1] In addition to leading 41 faculty recruitments, and leading the design and construction of a new dedicated $90 million cancer institute building for the NCI Designated Cancer Center, Simons co-directed with Shuming Nie the National Cancer Institute Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence at Emory and Georgia Institute of Technology.^[2] From 2000 to 2006, 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.

With Michael Milken, Chairman of the Board of FasterCures, Simons created the strategic plan and served as the interim chief science officer for the launch of the Melanoma Research Alliance. The Melanoma Research Alliance was founded by Debra and Leon Black in 2007; it is now the world’s leading funder of biomedical research in melanoma.^[3]

In 2011, Simons was inducted into the Johns Hopkins University Society of Scholars. The society—the first of its kind in the nation—inducts former postdoctoral fellows, porstdoctoral degree recipients, house staff and junior or visiting faculty who have served at least a year at Johns Hopkins and thereafter gained marked distinction elsewhere in their fields of physical, biological, medical, social or engineering sciences or in the humanities and for whom at least five years have elapsed since their last Johns Hopkins affiliation.^[4]

Simons currently serves on the Board of Directors of FasterCures as well as Melanoma Research Alliance. Simons also serves on multiple Scientific Advisory Boards including that of the V Foundation and the EP Evans Foundation. Simons is married and has two sons.

Prostate Cancer Foundation under Simons

During Simons’s decade-long tenure, the Foundation has raised over $410 million in new gifts for its mission. He has led the expansion of PCF’s Research Awards program globally to 627 new research awards including $159.0 million in funding to 130 teams of scientists working on human genetics, molecular oncology, genomic medicines, molecular imaging, and precision immunotherapy. In 2008, 2011, and 2012 respectively, he launched new peer-reviewed research programs in the United Kingdom, People’s Republic of China , and Ireland. During Simons’ term, the Prostate Cancer Foundation also increased its support for cancer researchers in Australia, Canada, and Greece through the PCF Hellenic Fund. When Simons joined the Prostate Cancer Foundation in 2007, he launched the “PCF 100”, with the goal of securing support for 100 Young Investigators. Each Young Investigator receives a total grant amount of $225,000, which is matched dollar-for-dollar by his or her university . To date, the Foundation has more than doubled its human capital investment in these early-career physician-scientists, having funded over 204 PCF Young Investigator Awards. In 2016, Simons announced a first-of-its-kind 5-year partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs .

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