Simon Spiro

Simon was a Wellcome Trust Scholar on the Infection, Immunology and Translational Medicine DPhil programme. His work focussed on the mechanism of action of iminosugars as anti-retroviral drugs, specifically looking at their effects on the folding of the gp120 envelope protein of HIV-1. Simon also had a side project looking at the effects of iminosugars on Ebola virus, as part of a collaboration with Public Health England at Porton Down.

Prior to joining the Zitzmann group Simon trained as a veterinarian at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he also took an intercalated degree in pathology. Previous research experience includes an undergraduate project on the lysin protein of bacteriophage TH1 under Dr Jim Ajioka in the Department of Pathology at Cambridge, as well as rotation projects on the srf-2 gene of C.elegans with Prof Jonathan Hodgkin in the Department of Biochemistry, and T-cell vaccines for influenza with Prof Sarah Gilbert in the Jenner Institute, both at the University of Oxford.

Simon is an experienced teacher having worked as a supervisor for both medical and veterinary students at Pembroke and is now the non-stipendiary lecturer in pathology at New College, Oxford. He is currently working towards becoming a fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. When Simon is not working he enjoys playing Quizbowl, experimenting with weather balloons and spending as much time with animals as possible.