International Scientific Advisory Committee (ISAC) member profile

Paul Sims

Dr Paul F G Sims is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, U.K. For the last thirty years his research work has been primarily in two areas, lignocellulose degradation and molecular parasitology. Historically, he was amongst the first to use molecular cloning and characterisation of gene products to describe both the molecular basis of lignin and cellulose degradation by the white rot fungus, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, and antifolate drug resistance in the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. He has also been instrumental in fully characterising the folate biosynthetic pathway of the latter organism, work that has led to the discovery of a completely novel route to folate biosynthesis. His current work in this area shows that this novel pathway is found in a wide range of organisms beyond P. falciparum, including a number of other pathogens. Another area of focus has been work on development and application of the first quantitative proteomics techniques to be deployed in the study of the human malaria parasite. The driving force behind this work is the belief that quantitative proteomic methods are a key component to understanding the regulation of gene expression and he has thus extended these studies to systems beyond Plasmodium. Thus, as well as ongoing work on the malaria parasite, he currently has active collaborations, exploiting this technology, aimed at quantitating the yeast proteome, investigating post-transcriptional control in yeast and the early events in both Alzheimer’s disease and Type II diabetes.