Background
Dr. Patricia (Trish) Simner received her Ph.D. in 2011 at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Her Ph.D. research was funded by the successful application for the prestigious Alexander Graham Bell Canadian Graduate Scholarship Award from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. In Dr. Simner's thesis work, she studied the epidemiology and molecular characterization of ESBL- and AmpC β-lactamase-producing Enterobacteriaceae isolated in Canadian hospitals from 2005-2009. Her work as part of the Canadian Antimicrobial Resistance Alliance has resulted in a total of 25 peer-reviewed publications from 2007 to date with greater than 30 abstract presentations at national and international conferences. From her Ph.D. work she is a known researcher in the area of mechanism of antibiotic resistance, in particular β-lactam resistance among Gram-negative bacteria.
After obtaining her Ph.D., Dr. Simner completed a two year Clinical Microbiology Fellowship at the world renowned Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. During her time at the Mayo Clinic she was involved in the evaluation, development and implementation of novel molecular diagnostic tools such as matrix-assisted laser-desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry and polymerase chain reaction electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. Her time at the Mayo Clinic was very productive and resulted in 6 book chapters, 5 national and international conference presentations, 4 peer-reviewed publications, 2 case-reports and 1 invited review article. In addition, she was promoted to Assistant Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the Mayo School of Graduate Education due to her excellence in teaching and mentoring. At the completion of her Clinical Microbiology Fellowship she became board-certified in Medical Microbiology by the American Board of Medical Microbiology. From her fellowship work she is known in the Clinical Microbiology field for developing and evaluating novel diagnostic platforms.
At the completion of her fellowship Dr. Simner returned to her home Province in Manitoba, Canada and worked as a Clinical Microbiologist at St. Boniface Hospital and as an Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba in the Department of Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology for 13 months. She continued her research focus on antimicrobial resistance mechanisms and her collaborations with the Canadian Antimicrobial Resistance Alliance. She was able to continue her productivity during this transition period with two peer-reviewed publications.
From there Dr. Simner was welcomed as Assistant Professor of Pathology and Director of the Bacteriology and Parasitology sections of the Medical Microbiology Laboratory in March, 2015. In her short time at Johns Hopkins she has submitted multiple grant submissions, publications and is involved in interdisciplinary research collaborations. Dr. Simner continues her research in the areas of gram-negative bacterial resistance mechanisms with a focus on carbapenem-resistant gram-negative bacilli and novel diagnostic tools for infectious diseases such as next-generation sequencing.
Dr. Simner is also active in the Clinical Microbiology communities by participating on committees and as a reviewer for the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.