Malgorzata Simm, Ph.D., MSc, FCM

Associate Dean of Biomedical Sciences

  • Office: Coal Building, Room 301
  • Telephone: (606) 218-5502
  • E-mail: MalgorzataSimm@upike.edu

Infection and Immunity
Scientific Foundations of Medicine
Pulmonology & HEENT
Musculoskeletal Disease and Dermatology

Ph.D. – Natural Sciences
Children’s Memorial Health Institute and A.K. Military Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology
Warsaw, Poland

Denlinger, R., Clapp, I., Lyle, J., Smith, J.H., Janumpalli, C., Amick S., and Simm, M.: The postmortem evaluation of anatomical thymic parameters in the context of age, cause of death, sex, and body mass index in the elderly human population. Lymphatics 2 (2): 83-96, 2024, https://doi.org/10.3390/lymphatics2020007

Kanneganti, P., Lyle, J., Smith, J.H., McGuire, H., Denlinger, R., and Simm, M.: The unilateral involution in the thymus of a 96-year-old male leads to the preservation of structural and functional integrity of a right thymic lobe, as assessed by the expression of medullar and cortical antigens and the presence of CD3+ cells. Heliyon 8 (2022) e11734, doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e11734. eCollection 2022 Nov. PMID: 36411931

Darbinian, N., Darbinyan, A., Merabova, A., Gomberg, R., Chabriere, E., Simm, M., Khalili, K., Selzer, M., and Amini, A.: DING Protein Inhibits HIV-1 Gene Transcription by Suppressing of p65 Subunit of NF-B Phosphorylation and Activation. J HIV AIDS 6(1): Aug 31, 2020, dx.doi.org/10.16966/2380-5536.175

To see all Dr. Simm’s publications, visit the bibliography at the National Library of Medicine
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/14KAgwqly6EkP/bibliography/public/

Postdoctoral Fellow; Department of Pathology, Molecular Virology Division, Columbia University, New York

European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) –  A Short-Term Fellowship Award for outstanding Ph.D. Candidate.  Immunochemical and molecular genetic analysis of bacterial pathogens and their virulence determinants in Trinity College,  Dublin, Ireland.

Dr. Simm’s research tests the hypothesis that the residual function of the thymus persists in humans until the end of life and plays a role in optimizing immune function.  Because of a scarcity of human tissue and a lack of standardized markers of thymic cellular activity in that age group, we established a KYCOM cohort characterized by the advanced age of its subjects spanning 50 to 100+ years.  Applying the immunocytochemistry and gene expression profiling, Dr. Simm’s team found that some individuals in the KYCOM cohort had a structurally and functionally preserved thymus at the time of death.  In recent publications, the team reported that the involution process might occur unilaterally, thus preserving the function of one of the thymic lobes until the end of life, and that specific structural parameters of the organ are characteristic only in this age group.  We also found that body weight may have significantly affected the thymus structure and function.   Looking at the expression of genes mediating the organ’s function in the young human population, the research team has found that these genes were also expressed in some elderly individuals.  Dr. Simm wants to determine if these genes’ protein products may serve as molecular markers of thymic function in the late stage of human life.   Dr. Simm’s research is funded by an NIH grant R15-AG078992.  The research team incorporates members of the KYCOM Gross Anatomy and Immunology Departments and Student Fellows.