Patricia J. Simpson-Haidaris, Ph.D.

My major academic commitment is to serve as mentor to undergraduate, graduate, medical and resident fellows wishing to pursue academic research with the goal of fostering their desires to contribute to the scholarship and knowledge of the biomedical research disciplines and health professions. I have teaching commitments in both Pathology and Microbiology & Immunology at the graduate student level at the University of Rochester. Furthermore, my commitment to mentored-training is evidenced by my service since 2001 as a reviewer on the NHLBI Special Emphasis panels for mentored training awards including the K08, K22, K23, K24, K25 and K99/R00 award mechanisms, and since 2005 as a Scientist Reviewer for Department of Defense and Komen Foundation pre-doctoral and post-doctoral training grant awards.

My research program at the University of Rochester includes both independent investigations and collaborative interactions with faculty members of the Departments of Pediatrics and Microbiology & Immunology on the pathogenic mechanisms of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and the host inflammatory response and wound repair in response to Photodynamic therapy of Candida infections, and in the Departments of Medicine and Biochemistry & Biophysics on the interactions of fibrinogen and fibrin at the vessel wall and the extracellular matrix. Additional collaborations with colleagues in the Cancer Center and Bioengineering are based on the role of fibrinogen in breast and prostate cancer, in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology and the Cardiovascular Research Institute on studies examining cellular responses to heparin binding growth factors, fibrinogen, fibronectin and heparan sulfate proteoglycans in the extracellular matrix, in the Center for Oral Biology on the pathogenesis of infective endocarditis caused by Streptococcus mutans invasion of human coronary artery endothelial cells, and in the Infectious Disease Division on the the direct and indirect effects of Dengue virus infection of the vascular endothelium and the molecular pathways that may contribute to the vascular leakage syndrome associated with dengue hemorrhagic fever/dengue shock syndrome.

Research