Dr. Denise Perry Simmons serves the Office of Research and Economic Development as the Senior Director of Research Development - specializing in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. In this capacity she is charged with increasing UNT research growth through proposal development.
Dr. Simmons came to UNT from the Hackensack University Medical Center where she held the position of Director of Clinical Research at the John Theurer Cancer Center and served as a Board Member State of New Commission on Cancer Research. As Director, her responsibilities included clinical trial contract and budget negotiation, management of grant and foundation awards, oversight of clinical research activities and selection of clinical studies to ensure that cutting-edge therapies were available for patients; grant and foundation development-among which are the receipt of the 2008 ASCO grant in clinical cancer research, $2.6M in State funding for translational cancer research, clinical research education funded grants from Novartis, Pfizer and Aventis, forging new collaborations between funding agencies, pharmaceutical companies, and independent research groups; facilitation of the application process of investigator-initiated research grants; and education of physicians, nurses, and research data coordinators in FDA guidelines, Good Clinical Practice (GCP) and Good Laboratory Practice (GLP).
Dr. Simmons obtained her Ph.D. in the Biological Sciences from the University of Texas at Austin where she completed a combined degree with U.T.M.D. Anderson in Cancer Research. She has received fellow awards in medicinal chemistry at the University of Texas Drug Dynamics Institute and the National Institutes of Health-National Cancer Institute in the Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cellular Tumor Promotion, as well as NIH Outstanding Mentor and Technology Transfer Awards. She has developed national and international melanoma treatment-related patents, published in Carcinogenesis, Journal of Virology, Journal of American Chemical Society, Clinical Chemistry, Journal of Nutritional Immunology and serves as reviewer for Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters and Cancer Genetics and Cytogenetic and Genome Research.
Dr. Simmons serves as Scientific Advisor for Sophic Systems, Scientific Advisor LifeLover Foundation, a member of the American Chemical Society (ACS), American Society of Clinical Oncologists (ASCO), American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) where she serves on two committees - Immunology as well as Minorities in Cancer Research, Cancer Alliance of Texas (CAT) where she is on the Prevention and Intervention Committee and the Dallas Fort Worth Life Science Council.