Bio:  
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.