[citation needed] His mother is a teacher who inspired him to teach engineering at the post secondary level and encouraged his curiosity for research.
[3] Six years later in 2000, Simmons completed his Ph.D. thesis on the Modelling and Characterization of Mechanically Regulated Tissue formation around Bone-interfacing Implants at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Robert M. Pilliar and Shaker Meguid.
[4] After completing his doctorate degree, Simmons worked as a postdoctoral fellow at David J. Mooney’s lab at the University of Michigan.
MATCH trained over 70 graduate students in biomedical micro-technologies helping them to become professors, doctors, create their own startups and work in the medical device and healthcare industry.
Ongoing projects include utilization of novel biomaterials and measurement techniques, development of bioreactors, and screening conditions for optimal stem cell culture.
They offer potential for incorporating on-chip biomolecular and cell-secreted factor detection in the context of physiological shear stress.
Based on hypotheses about molecular regulators of valvular calcification and fibrosis, the lab uses in vitro co-culture systems to mechanically stimulate heart valve cells and investigate the phenotypic expression.