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Frank A Simmen, PhD
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Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences/College of Medicine/ Department of Physiology & Biophysics |
Phone: (501) 364-2859
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Research Overview
Dr. Simmen is a Senior Investigator in Developmental Biology in the Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center. Three areas of ongoing research in his laboratory include: (1) the study of how nutrition during fetal and postnatal development affects small and large intestine gene expression and these tissue's predisposition to tumor development in adults, specifically the delineation of the role of dietary factors (soy and whey) in regulation of intestine gene expression during development and after carcinogen administration to young adult animals (funded by the ARS-USDA); (2) examination of 'Kruppel-like' nuclear transcription factors that help determine cell growth and phenotype in the small intestine during normal tissue growth and development (funded by the ACHRI/ABI Program); (3) the study of molecular mechanisms by which the uterus and embryo communicate (embryo-maternal cross-talk), which involves studies of nuclear transcription factors and their molecular actions (collaboration with Dr. R.C.M. Simmen which is funded by the NIH). These investigations address clinically relevant disorders of the gastrointestinal tract in infants, children and adults with experimental approaches that include in vitro tissue and cell models, molecular and cell biology, and genomics.
Key Publications
Xiao R, Su Y, Simmen RC, Simmen FA. Dietary soy protein inhibits DNA damage and cell survival of colon epithelial cells through attenuated expression of fatty acid synthase. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2008 Apr;294(4):G868-76.
Xiao R, Hennings LJ, Badger TM, Simmen FA. Fetal programming of colon cancer in adult rats: correlations with altered neonatal growth trajectory, circulating IGF-I and IGF binding proteins, and testosterone. J Endocrinol. 2007 Oct;195(1):79-87.
Velarde MC, Zeng Z, McQuown JR, Simmen FA, Simmen RC. Kruppel-like factor 9 is a negative regulator of ligand-dependent estrogen receptor alpha signaling in Ishikawa endometrial adenocarcinoma cells. Mol Endocrinol. 2007 Dec;21(12):2988-3001.
Simmen FA, Xiao R, Velarde MC, Nicholson RD, Bowman MT, Fujii-Kuriyama Y, Oh SP, Simmen RC. Dysregulation of intestinal crypt cell proliferation and villus cell migration in mice lacking Kruppel-like factor 9. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2007 Jun;292(6):G1757-69.
Xiao R, Badger TM, Simmen FA. Dietary exposure to soy or whey proteins alters colonic global gene expression profiles during rat colon tumorigenesis. Mol Cancer. 2005 Jan 11;4(1):1.
*To find additional publications by this author, please visit Pubmed Central, a National Institutes of Health-operated site for electronic distribution of life sciences research reports.
Research Support
ARS: The Effects of Dietary Factors during Development on Long-term Health Consequences: Effects of Dietary Factors on Cancer Prevention (Lead Scientist)
NIH: Uteroferrin gene expression during development (co-I)