User:UofT BME410/Craig Simmons

Craig Simmons is a professor of mechanobiology at the University of Toronto. He received a Master's degree in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D in mechanical engineering from the University of Toronto. Simmons actively contributes to the fields of mechanobiology, stem cells, microfluidics and tissue engineering.

Personal Life
Simmons was inspired to become an engineer and a teacher by his family from an early age. His father is an engineer who has been a recipient of the Ontario Professional Engineer Award while his grandfather owned a machine shop where Simmons spent a lot of time early on in his life. His mother is a teacher who inspired him to teach engineering at the post secondary level and encouraged his curiosity for research.

Education
Craig Simmons completed his Bachelor of Science in bioengineering at the University of Guelph in 1991 with distinction. He then continued on to receive his Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994. Six years later in 2000, Simmons completed his Ph.D thesis on the Modelling and Characterization of Mechanically Regulated Tissue formation around Bone-interfacing Implants at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Robert M. Pilliar and Shaker Meguid.

Career
After completing his doctorate degree, Simmons worked as a postdoctoral fellow at David J. Mooney’s lab at the University of Michigan. In 2002, he started his postdoctoral fellowship in the University of Pennsylvania under the supervision of Peter F. Davies. Simmons returned to the University of Toronto in 2005 as an assistant professor. He received his title as a Distinguished Professor of Mechanobiology in 2016 Outside his professorship, Simmons is active in many administrative initiatives. From 2009 to 2014, Simmons lead the NSERC CREATE program in Microfluidics Applications and Training in Cardiovascular Health (MATCH) as its program director. MATCH trained over 70 graduate students in biomedical micro-technologies helping them to become professors, doctors, create their own startups and work in the medical device and healthcare industry. Simmons was also appointed as the scientific director of Translational Biology and Engineering Program (TBEP) in 2015 for a 5 year term. TBEP is an interdisciplinary research initiative at the Ted Rogers Center for Heart Research that unites the University of Toronto, the Hospital for Sick Children and the University Health Network to advance treatments for cardiovascular disease. Under Simmons' direction, TBEP focuses on three key research areas: 1) discovery in cardiovascular development, disease initiation and repair, 2) determination of molecular signatures or biomarkers for early detection and management of cardiovascular disease, and 3) regeneration of cardiovascular tissues using molecules, cells and materials (as stated here).

Stem cell mechanobiology and tissue engineering
This subgroup of Simmons lab focuses on developing and optimizing strategies for culturing and conditioning pluripotent and mesenchymal stem cells. The applications fall in the area of regenerative medicine and past projects have focused on disease modelling, therapeutic drug testing, and tissue engineering for the replacement of damaged tissues in cardiovascular systems. Current ongoing projects include utilization of novel biomaterials and measurement techniques, development of bioreactors, and screening conditions for optimal stem cell culture. Some of his recent publications talk about the advancements in myocardial models, differential regulation of extracellular matrix components and generating growth factor profiles to enable extracellular matrix accumulation within an in vitro tissue engineering environment.

Microfabrication and microfluidics to control cell environment
The Simmons lab aims to mimic the complex environments that cells reside in. These environments have significant impacts on the phenotype and function of cells. To account for these environmental factors, the Simmons lab integrates microfabrication with cell mechanics and advanced biology. This technology combined with the lab’s mechanobioreactors allows for stimulating cells in a controlled manner.

The Simmons lab’s microfluidic platforms similarly models vascularized cell environments. These platforms offer great potential for incorporating on-chip biomolecular and cell-secreted factor detection while in the context of physiological shear stress. The ultimate goal is to enable valuable functionality to microfluidic cell culture models. These labs-on-chips are an efficient means to research vascularized cell environments and aid disease diagnosis.

Heart valve mechanobiology and disease
The Simmons lab studies the mechanical and biological triggers that lead to sclerosis to identify therapeutic targets for the prevention and treatment of sclerosis. Through microgenomics techniques, the lab aims towards identifying the cellular and molecular differences in diseased vs. healthy heart tissue. Based on the hypotheses made on molecular regulators of valvular calcification and fibrosis, the lab uses in vitro co-culture systems to mechanically stimulate heart valve cells and investigate the phenotypic expression. The Simmons lab also works toward engineering a living heart valve tissue that is able to repair defective valves in children with congenital heart defects.

Awards and Accomplishments

 * Elected fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (2018)
 * Northrop Frye Award (2017)
 * R & D Ontario Professional Engineers Awards (2017)
 * Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering Teaching Awards: Faculty Teaching Award (2017)
 * Distinguished Professor of Mechanobiology, University of Toronto (2016)
 * Scientific Director, U of T Translational Biology & Engineering Program (TBEP), Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research (2015)
 * Heart and Stroke Foundation CP Has Heart Award (2015)
 * Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering Teaching Award (2015)
 * Fellow, Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (2014)
 * McLean Award, University of Toronto (2012)
 * McCharles Prize for Early Career Distinction (2010)
 * Director, NSERC CREATE program in Microfluidic Applications and Training in Cardiovascular Health (MATCH) (2009-15)
 * Early Career Teaching Award, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering (2009)
 * Early Research Award, Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering (2009)
 * Ontario Early Researcher Award (2006)
 * Canada Research Chair in Mechanobiology (2006)

Notable Publications and Books
Craig Simmons has publish over 160 papers with over 10000 citations. Some notable works include: A full list of publications can be found on PubMed or Google Scholar
 * Calcific Aortic Valve Disease: Not Simply a Degenerative Process
 * Dual growth factor delivery and controlled scaffold degradation enhance in vivo bone formation by transplanted bone marrow stromal cells
 * Cyclic strain enhances matrix mineralization by adult human mesenchymal stem cells via the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK1/2) signaling pathway
 * Introductory biomechanics: from cells to organisms
 * Calcification by valve interstitial cells is regulated by the stiffness of the extracellular matrix