For more than 25 years, Simon was a pillar of strength, knowledge, and technical excellence in the McMichael and collaborating teams, which were among the founding members of the CIO. In 2000, Simon joined the Human Immunology Unit at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (WIMM) after completing his DPhil with Nick Proudfoot in the Dunn School. During his time at the WIMM he worked with Gavin Screaton and Xiaoning Xu on alternative splicing of CD45 and gene regulation. Simon then moved on to join the McMichael group, working as part of the CHAVI HIV vaccine consortium.
Simon’s all-round expertise in molecular biology and computer skills, all generously shared, coupled with a gentle humour with skills as a cartoonist and cake-baker made him a tremendously popular team member. He was particularly kind to students and new postdocs, many from overseas, who were taught and guided by him. He played a huge part in making the laboratory both happy and highly productive.
Simon was a scientific innovator. He loved doing experiments, preferring to remain at the bench rather than pursuing the grant writing and administrative routes necessary to become a group leader. He made major contributions to the team’s work on HLA-E by showing how the generation of single chain trimers, of peptide-ß2microglobulin-heavy chain could be exploited in multiple ways. In addition he helped design key experiments to understand the antigen processing requirements of HLA-E. He was the first in the CIO to adopt CRISPR-Cas9 methodology, quietly deciding to knock out ß2microglubilin from cell lines such as HEK-293 to prevent endogenous HLA class I. He did this rapidly, almost before the rest of the team had realised the potential of the technology. His work, moving from the WIMM to the Old Road Campus and then the CIO, was central to all that the McMichael, Gillespie, Borrow and collaborating teams did. His contributions will endure in the development of immunotherapies and vaccines.
Since Simon retired due to his ill health we have missed him enormously, though happy when he managed to visit us, often before or after treatment sessions. Although we have now lost our dear friend and highly valued colleague, we can treasure many happy memories that will long remain. He was a committed scientist right until the end, participating in two clinical trials and donating his brain to a brain bank. He made a difference.
