/sent on behalf of Dr. Stephanie Booth

Dr. Valerie Sim self-identifies as a scientist who practices medicine to support her music habit. By day she is a prion scientist at the Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases at the University of Alberta and a clinical neurologist consultant for rapidly progressive dementia cases locally and throughout Canada. By night she is a violinist and fiddler.
After her undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of Calgary and her neurology residency at University of Ottawa, Dr. Sim completed a post-doctoral fellowship in prion disease research at Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIH, Montana, under the supervision of Dr. Byron Caughey. She joined the University of Alberta Division of Neurology in 2009 and was promoted to associate professor with tenure in July, 2016.
In her research lab, Dr. Sim grows prion-infected brain slices in a dish in order to ask: 1) how a prion's size and shape can influence patterns of disease and risks of transmission; and 2) how targeting multiple steps along the disease pathway might produce more effective treatments. From protein biochemistry to animal treatment experiments, her research publications have received international media attention.
She also promotes science communication, and regularly presents the science of prion disease to diverse communities across Alberta, Canada.