Speakers

Simonne is a geneticist and biologist.  She completed a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Genetics at the University of Alberta, Canada, followed by a Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Chicago where she contributed insights into the mechanism of somatic hypermutation in B lymphocytes. 

Her postdoctoral research in the Dept. of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale elucidated molecular functions of DNA repair proteins deficient in the rare human disease Fanconi Anemia. Since then, Simonne has held various roles in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, first at the startup WuXi Nextcode (now Genuity Science) where she led a small group in computational analysis and tool-building for individual to large-scale germline genetic data spanning rare and common human disease. She then joined the Human Genetics group at Biogen to support clinical stage programs in neuroscience, followed by a move to Merck, where she led a group of human geneticists in target discovery and human genomics supporting drug development programs across various therapeutic areas. 

She is currently the Head of Human Genetics– US at Boehringer Ingelheim.