Christopher Simon

Course: Doctor of Philosophy (Neuroscience), 2022
Nationality: Malaysian
Current role: Postdoctoral Fellow (Neurodegeneration), Harvard Medical School

If you’re currently working, please tell us about your role in your organisation.

I am a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School, working with renowned neuroscientist Dr Mel Feany to elucidate the pathobiological underpinnings of brain degenerations in genetically engineered model systems.

Please tell us briefly about your postgraduate research at Monash

Deterioration of cognitive networks in the demented elderly has been ascribed to proteins that transmogrify themselves into rogue ensembles within the conservative brain microenvironment. Across brain cells, these conglomerates interact with their noxious counterparts to dishevel virtually all the inner workings of a normally functioning cell. In an attempt to overturn this potentially damaging spread of pathology, our findings insinuate a salutary intersection between kisspeptin, a brain hormone that orchestrates puberty, and α-synuclein, a brain protein that goes rogue.

We understand that you’ve completed your thesis examination without any requirement for revision and have been offered a postdoctoral position at Harvard. Congratulations! What are your secrets to success?

If you have a dream, strive for it tenaciously. I have sacrificed my todays, stomached humiliations, and succumbed to failure over and over again. And yet, here I am, completely unfazed and more intrepid than ever.

What type of opportunities did you participate in at Monash?

Participated in the Three Minute Thesis Competition in 2020 and won first runner-up.

What did you enjoy most about your student life at Monash?

I loved the days when an iterative series of conjectures and refutations, while in pursuit of scientific truth, were 'normalised' by hypothetico-deductive logic and fortuitous experimental results. Such circumstances, needless to say, would not have been imaginable without the trailblazing research environment at Monash University Malaysia.

What is your biggest career goal, or what difference would you like to make?

Today, with a secret longing to cultivate scientific literacy among society's unfortunates, I find myself perpetually redefining my own stance on altruism and social adroitness for pedagogical inspiration.