Mark Simons

Mark Simons PhD, MSPH is a Commander in the U.S. Navy and a researcher at the Uniformed Services University (USU) School of Medicine's Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics. He serves as Deputy Program Director of the Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Program (IDCRP) and leads the Naval Infectious Diseases Diagnostic Laboratory (NIDDL). His academic roles include managing the Military Infectious Diseases Research Program's Wound Infections portfolio and serving as Technical Lead for the DHA's Bacteriophage Therapy Initiative.

Education:

• PhD in Molecular Biology (University of Iowa, 2005)
• MSPH in Epidemiology/Global Public Health (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 2016)
• Fellowship in Clinical Microbiology (Naval Medical Center San Diego, 2013)

Research Focus: Combating antimicrobial resistance, developing bacteriophage therapies, and studying emerging infections like SARS-CoV-2. Key areas include gut microbiota dynamics during travel, vaccine efficacy evaluation, and host immune responses to infections.

Key Projects:

• Phase II clinical trials for bacteriophage therapy
• Global Travelers' Diarrhea Study
• COVID-19 longitudinal cohort studies
• MDRO wound infection research

Awards & Grants: Principal Investigator of multiple peer-reviewed grants including $1.8M from the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs. Recognized for contributions to military health research through the NMRC Scientific Merit Award and NMRC Director's Commendation.

Labs & Teams: Leads the NIDDL lab and collaborates with the IDCRP network, DHA Integrated Product Team, and global health partners in Peru, Cambodia, and Ghana.