Dr. Simon Watkins is the Founder and Director of the Center for Biologic Imaging at the University of Pittsburgh and a member of the Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. He is also the Director of the Graduate Program and a Professor (with tenure) within the Department of Cell Biology and Physiology. In addition to his responsibilities to the university, Dr. Watkins serves as a member on the Research advisory Board of Children's Hospital.

Dr. Watkins received his Ph.D. in Neurobiology from Newcastle University in England in 1983. He also holds a B.S.C. in Zoology from Hull University in England. Following his graduate studies, Dr. Watkins was appointed as a Research Fellow at Pasteur Institute in Paris, France, within the Department of Molecular Biology. Immediately prior to arriving at the university, he was a Research Fellow and Research Associate at the Harvard Medical School Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Understanding the processes of development, assembly and integration of the dystrophin cytoskeleton and its potential role(s) in establishing and maintaining normal muscle function is a primary research interest of Dr. Watkins. For his work concerning this topic, he has been featured in several publications. Currently, he is continuing efforts to develop a better understanding of these processes as well as defining what goes wrong in a number of related diseases including Duchenne muscular dystrophy (dystrophin deficiency), congenital muscular dystrophy (merosin deficiency) and the sarcoglycanopathies.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Dr. Simon Watkins
Phone: (412) 648-3051
Email: swatkins@pitt.edu