Associate Professor Charmaine Simeonovic
Contacts
Associate Professor Simeonovic is leader of the Diabetes/Transplantation Immunobiology Group in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Disease at The John Curtin School of Medical Research (JCSMR), ANU. She has over 30 years of experience in diabetes research and focuses on the pathogenesis of Type 1 diabetes (T1D) and the molecular mechanisms responsible for beta cell loss in Type 2 diabetes. Her earlier research focussed on the immunobiology of islet transplantation as a treatment for established Type 1 diabetes.
She has supervised 28 PhD, Honours, Masters and undergraduate students (1998-ongoing) and examined > 20 PhD, Honours and MSc theses (1995-2015).
Associate Professor Simeonovic is a member of the Cell Transplantation Editorial Board (1998-) and is a member of the Diabetes Australia Advisory Panel (2015-present).
Research interests
The pathogenesis of autoimmune diabetes, interventions to prevent the progression of the disease process and the treatment of the established disease by pancreatic islet transplantation. Strategies are being developed to protect the integrity of pancreatic islet tissue from autoimmune damage and to facilitate the long-term survival of islet allografts without the use of conventional immunosuppression.
Research Funding Summary:
Associate Professor Simeonovic has been awarded over $12 million in research funding.
(i) For 1990-2016: 8 international Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) Research grants (1990-2013), 6 NHMRC grants (1984-85, 1994-95, 1996-98, 2003-05, 2013-2015, 2014-2016), a JDFI/JDFA/NHMRC Diabetes Collaborative Research grant (1998-2002), 7 Diabetes Australia Research grants (2004-2013) and a NHMRC/JDRF Special Program Grant (2008-2012).
(ii) For 2017-2020: Associate Professor Simeonovic has been awarded a $1.5 million in funding as a JDRF/ARC Type 1 Diabetes Clinical Research Network Innovative Grant, representing a collaboration with Professor Chris Parish, Associate Professor Elizabeth Gardiner and Dr Lucy Coupland at JCSMR, Professor Beng Chong at UNSW and Dr Manuela Battaglia, San Raffaele Scientific Research Institute, Milan, Italy.
Recent Grant Funding:
- NHMRC Project Grant 2014-2016: Impact of islet beta cell heparan sulfate in Type 2 diabetes (Primary Investigator)
- NHMRC Project Grant 2013-2015: Mechanism of protection of islet beta cells from T1D by heparan sulfate (Primary Investigator)
- NHMRC/JDRF Special Program Grant in Type 1 Diabetes 2008-2012: Role of heparan sulfate, heparanase and heparanase inhibitors in the development and prevention of Type I Diabetes (Secondary Investigator)
- Dynamic Flow Chamber System for the Visualisation and Quantification of Cell Adhesion Under Flow Conditions (Secondary Investigator)
- Request for an Olympus Light Microscope with Digital Camera (Primary Investigator)
- Dual Forma Series II Universal Water Jacketed CO2 Incubator (Primary Investigator)
- NHMRC Project Grant 2003-2005: Major Porcine Antigens for the Generation and Induction of Immune Responses to neovascularised Pig Tissue Xenografts (Primary Investigator)
Groups
Projects
- Kopprasch, S, Dheban, S, Schuhmann, K et al 2016, 'Detection of independent associations of plasma lipidomic parameters with insulin sensitivity indices using data mining methodology', PLOS ONE (Public Library of Science), vol. 11, no. 10, pp. 16pp.
- Bogdani, M, Simeonovic, C, Nagy, N et al 2015, 'The Detection of Glycosaminoglycans in Pancreatic Islets and Lymphoid Tissues', Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 1229, pp. 413-430.
- Choong, F, Freeman, C, Parish, C, Simeonovic CJ 2015, 'Islet Heparan Sulfate but Not Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycan Core Protein Is Lost During Islet Isolation and Undergoes Recovery Post-Islet Transplantation', American Journal of Transplantation, vol. 15, pp. 2861-2864.
- Bogdani, M, Korpos, E, Simeonovic, C et al 2014, 'Extracellular Matrix Components in the Pathogenesis of Type 1 Diabetes', Current Diabetes Reports, vol. 14, no. 12, pp. 1-11.
- Delghingaro-Augusto, V, Madad, L, Chandra, A et al 2014, 'Islet inflammation, hemosiderosis, and fibrosis in intrauterine growth-restricted and high fat-fed sprague-dawley rats', American Journal of Pathology, vol. 184, no. 5, pp. 1446-1457.
- Irving-Rodgers, H, Choong, F, Hummitzsch, K et al 2014, 'Pancreatic Islet basement membrane loss and remodeling after mouse islet isolation and transplantation: Impact for allograft rejection', Cell Transplantation, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 59-72.
- Simeonovic, C & Parish, C 2013, 'Comment on: Korpos et al. The peri-islet basement membrane, a barrier to infiltrating leukocytes in type 1 diabetes in mouse and human. Diabetes 2013;62:531-542', Diabetes, vol. 62, no. 8, pp. e13.
- Parish, C, Freeman, C, Ziolkowski, A, He YQ, Sutcliffe EL, Zafar A, Rao S, Simeonovic CJ. 2013, 'Unexpected new roles for heparanase in Type 1 diabetes and immune gene regulation', Matrix Biology, vol. 32, no. 5, pp. 228-233.
- Simeonovic, C, Ziolkowski, A, Wu, Z, Choong FJ, Freeman C, Parish CR. 2013, 'Heparanase and autoimmune diabetes', Frontiers in Immunology, vol. 4, pp. 1-7.
- Tait, B, Simeonovic, C & McCullagh, P 2012, 'Contributions of Australasians to the Study of Immune Responses to Allogeneic Transplanted Tissue', in Brian D Tait (ed.), More than a Footnote, Australian Scholarly Publishing Pty Ltd, Melbourne, pp. 465-489.
- Ziolkowski AF, Popp SK, Freeman C, Parish CR, Simeonovic CJ. 2012, 'Heparan sulfate and heparanase play key roles in mouse β cell survival and autoimmune diabetes', Journal of Clinical Investigation, vol. 122, pp. 132-141.
- Schmid, J, Ludwig, B, Schally, A et al 2011, 'Modulation of pancreatic islets-stress axis by hypothalamic releasing hormones and 11 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase', PNAS - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 108, no. 33, pp. 13722-13727.
- Schmid, J, Ludwig, B, Schally, A et al 2011, 'Reply to Liu et al.: Hypothalamic control of islets', PNAS - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 108, no. 51, pp. E1391-E1391.
- Hodgson R, Christiansen D, Ziolkowski A, Mouhtouris E, Simeonovic CJ, Ierino FL, Sandrin MS 2011, 'Prolonged xenograft survival induced by inducible costimulator-Ig Is associated with increased Forkhead Box P3+ Cells', Transplantation, vol. 91, no. 10, pp. 1090-1097.
- Mulley, W, Li, Y, Wee, J et al 2008, 'Local expression of IDO, either alone or in combination with CD40Ig, IL10 or CTLA4Ig,inhibits indirect xenorejection responses', Xenotransplantation, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 174-183.
- Irving-Rodgers, H, Ziolkowski, A, Parish, C et al 2008, 'Molecular composition of the peri-islet basement membrane in NOD mice: a barrier against destructive insulitis', Diabetologia, vol. 51, pp. 1680-1688.
- Popp, S, Mann, D, Milburn, P et al 2007, 'Transient transmission of porcine endogenous retrovirus to fetal lambs after pig islet tissue xenotransplantation', Immunology and Cell Biology, vol. 85, pp. 238-248.
- Solomon, M, Ramshaw, I & Simeonovic, C 2005, 'Recombinant fowlpox virus for in vitro gene delivery to pancreatic islet tissue', Immunology and Cell Biology, vol. 83, pp. 615-625.
- Simeonovic, C, Ziolkowski, A, Popp, S et al 2005, 'Porcine endogenous retrovirus encodes xenoantigens involved in porcine cellular xenograft rejection by mice', Transplantation, vol. 79, no. 12, pp. 1674-1682.
- Solomon, M, Kuziel, W & Simeonovic, C 2004, 'The contribution of chemokines and chemokine receptors to the rejection of fetal proislet allografts', Cell Transplantation, vol. 13, pp. 503-514.
- Solomon, M, Kuziel, W, Mann, D et al 2003, 'The role of chemokines and their receptors in the rejection of pig islet tissue xenografts', Xenotransplantation, vol. 10, pp. 164-177.
- Simeonovic, C, Cordery, D, Van Leeuwen, B et al 2002, 'Host systemic and local nitric oxide levels do not correlate with rejection of pig proislet xenografts in mice', Xenotransplantation, vol. 9, pp. 169-182.
- Lidbury, B, Simeonovic, C, Maxwell, G et al 2000, 'Macrophage-induced muscle pathology results in morbidity and mortality for Ross River virus-infected mice', Journal of Infectious Diseases, vol. 181, no. 1, pp. 27-34.
- Paule, M, Ramshaw, I & Simeonovic, C 2000, 'Avipox virus vectors for gene delivery to fetal mouse and pig proislets', Transplantation Proceedings, vol. 32, no. 5, p. 1067.
- Paule, M, McColl, S & Simeonovic, C 2000, 'Murine chemokine gene expression in rejecting pig proislet xenografts', Transplantation Proceedings, vol. 32, no. 5, pp. 1062..
- Simeonovic, C, Townsend, M, Morris, C et al 1999, 'Immune mechanisms associated with the rejection of fetal murine proislet allografts and pig proislet xenografts: comparison of intragraft cytokine mRNA profiles', Cell Transplantation, vol. 67, no. 7, pp. 963-971.
- Simeonovic, C 1999, 'Xenogeneic islet transplantation', Xenotransplantation, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 1-5.
- Simeonovic, C, Townsend, M, Karupiah, G et al 1999, 'Analysis of the Th1/Th2 paradigm in transplantation: interferon-gamma deficiency converts Th1-type proislet allograft rejection to a Th2-type xenograft-like response', Cell Transplantation, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 365-373.
