EM/ProfAnn Simpson

Professor Simpson has a BSc (Hons) and a PhD (Veterinary Science) from the University of Sydney. Professor Simpson joined the staff at UTS in 1994 and since 2002 has held the position of Professor of Biochemistry in the Department of Medical and Molecular Biosciences and since July 2009 has been Head of that Department.

She has also been Director of the Research Centre for Health Technologies since 2006. Prior to coming to UTS she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at both the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales.

At UTS Prof. Simpson is involved in teaching final year Science students Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Her current research interest is the gene therapy of diabetes mellitus. Specifically, her research is concerned with investigating the possibility of engineering an artificial insulin-producing cell to replace the insulin-secreting beta cells that have been destroyed by the autoimmune process in Type I diabetics.

The principle behind this approach is that non-pancreatic cells can be genetically altered to produce, store and secrete insulin to physiological stimuli such as glucose.

Her laboratory has a Research Fellow, a Research Assistant and Postgraduate students. Since joining UTS she has received research funding from organizations such as the NHMRC, ARC, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Australian Diabetes Research Trust, Roche Organ Transplant Research Foundation, Rebecca Cooper Foundation, Ramiciotti Research Foundation and commercial sources.

She has collaborations with Dr. Bronwyn OBrien and Najah Nassif in MMB, Dr. Wayne Hawthorne at Westmead Hospital, Dr. Ian Alexander at Westmead Children Hospital and Dr. John Feller at the Royal Hospital, Randwick.

International collaborations include Sir Roy Calne and Prof. Andrew Lever, Cambridge University, Prof. Dick White, Nottingham University, Prof. Lee Kok Onn and Dr. Shu Vin Gan, National University of Singapore and a commercial relationship with Austrianova Singapore.