Simon Geir Møller, Ph.D.

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Simon Moller

Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, University Distinguished Professor and Provost Endowed Chair
Professor, Biological Sciences
Newman Hall, Room 240
[email protected]
718-990-6308

Simon Geir Møller serves as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, University Distinguished Professor and Provost Endowed Chair. Following a four-year North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-funded postdoctoral position at Rockefeller University Simon was appointed as an assistant professor in 2001 and as associate professor in 2004 at The University of Leicester, UK. In 2006 Simon was appointed as Professor and Chair of Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Stavanger, Norway and held a joint professorship at The Norwegian Centre for Movement Disorders. In 2009 Simon founded and became Director of Centre for Organelle Research, a research center dedicated to organelle biology. He also founded the biotechnology company Plastid Corp. in 2007 and a holding company, SKMøller LLC, which held European real estate investments. Simon was appointed as a tenured professor at St. John’s University, Department of Biological Sciences in 2011 and in 2014 as the Vice-Provost for Graduate Education and Research. In 2015 he became Senior Vice Provost. In 2018 he was appointed Interim Provost and VP for Academic Affairs. On July 1, 2019, he was appointed Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. In 2023 he founded WalCado Labs Inc., a biotechnology startup company focused on neurodegenerative diseases and brain health.

Simon maintains an active research laboratory and has published more than 90 research articles and book chapters in prestigious journals such as Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Genes and Development, and EMBO Journal. He has received international recognition for his contribution to sciences including The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) Young Investigator Award, The Federation of European Societies of Plant Biology (FESPB) Young Scientist Award, The Society of Experimental Biology (SEB) President’s Medal in Cell Biology and The Promega International Scientific Prize. Simon is also an elected member of the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences and has had numerous advisory board and board member positions within the biotechnology industry sector.

Educational Background

  • 1995-1998: Ph.D., University of Leeds, Department of Biochemistry, UK
  • 1994-1995: Management and employment law, University of Stavanger, Norway
  • 1992-1993: M.S. with Distinction, Imperial College, Department of Biochemistry, UK
  • 1989-1992: B.S. with Honors, Class I, University of Leeds, Department of Biochemistry, UK

Publications

  • Dr. Møller has authored two books, acted as the Editor of two books and authored 12 book chapters.
  • Dr. Møller has published more than 80 journal research articles.

Recent publications

  • Benjamin Rosen, Alberim Kurtishi, Gonzalo Vazquez-Jimenez and Simon Geir Møller (2021) The Intersection of Parkinson's Disease, Viral Infections, and COVID-19. Molecular Neurobiology. 58: 4477-4486.
  • Ketan S. Patil⁠, Indranil Basak, Ingvild Dalen, Esthelle Hoedt, Johannes Lange, Kristin A. Lunde, Ying Liu, Ole-Bjørn Tysnes, Lars Forsgren, Dag Aarsland, Thomas A. Neubert, Jan Petter Larsen, Guido Alves, and Simon Geir Møller ⁠(2019) Combinatory microRNA serum signatures as classifiers of Parkinson's disease. Parkinsonism and Related Disorders, 64: 202-210
  • Fatemeh Ghanavatinejad,  Zahra Pourteymour Fard Tabrizi, Shadi Omidghaemi, Esmaeel Sharifi, Simon Geir Møller, Mohammad-Saeid Jami (2019) Protein Biomarkers of Neural System, J. Otology, 14: 77-88.
  • Kurtishi A, Rosen B, Patil KS, Alves GW, Møller SG. (2018) Cellular Proteostatis in Neurodegeneration. Mol. Neurobiol. 56:3676-3689.
  • Rosen B, Patil KS, Alves GW, Møller SG. (2018) Subcellular-specific alpha-synuclein in Parkinson’s Disease. In The Neuroscience of Parkinson’s Disease, Academic press.
  • Ali MR, Sadoqi M, Møller SG, Boutajangout A, Mezei M. (2017) Assessing the binding of cholinesterase inhibitors by docking and molecular dynamics studies. J. Mol. Graph. Model. 76:36-42.
  • Ahmadinejad F, Møller SG, Hashemzadeh-Chaleshtori M, Bidkhori G, Jami MS (2017) Molecular Mechanisms behind Free Radical Scavengers Function against. Antioxidant: 6, 1-15.
  • Patil KS and Møller SG (2017) MicroRNA as Neuroregulators. In The handbook of Nutrition, Diet, and Epigenetics. Springer Nature.
  • Piston D, Alvarez-Erviti L, Bonn S, Capece V, Gargano D, Yao Z, Szabadkai G, Odell M, Puno MR, Björkblom B, Maple-Grødem J, Breuer P, Larsen JP, Møller SG, Wüllner U, Schapira AHV and Gegg ME (2017) DJ-1 is a redox sensitive adapter protein for high molecular weight complexes involved in regulation of catecholamine homeostasis. Hum. Mol. Gen. 26: 4028-4041.
  • Abdullah R, Patil KS, Rosen B, Pal R, Prabhudesai S, Lee S, Basak I, Hoedt E, Yang P, Panick K, Ho HP, Chang E, Tzoulis C, Larsen JP, Neubert TA, Alves G, Møller SG.  (2016) Subcellular Parkinson’s Disease-Specific Alpha-Synuclein Species Show Altered Behavior in Neurodegeneration. Mol. Neurobiol. 54: 7639-7655.
  • Prabhudesai S, Bensabeur FZ, Abdullah R, Basak I, Baez S, Alves G, Holtzman NG, Larsen JP, Møller SG. (2016) LRRK2 knockdown in zebrafish causes developmental defects, neuronal loss, and synuclein aggregation.  J. Neurosci. Res. 94: 717-735 
  • Arif Pavel M, Lv C, Ng C, Yang L, Kashyap P, Lam C, Valentino V, Fung HY, Campbell T, Møller SG, Zenisek D, Holtzman NG, Yu Y. (2016) Function and regulation of TRPP2 ion channel revealed by gain-of-function mutants. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 113: 2363-2372
  • Basak I and Møller SG. (2016) Plant thermotolerance proteins, misfolded proteins, and neurodegenerative diseases, In Molecular Pharming: Applications, Challenges and Emerging Areas. Wiley.
  • Lange J, Aaaser Lune K, Sletten C, Møller SG, Tysnes OB, Alves G, Larsen JP, Maple-Grødem J. (2015) Association of a BACE1 gene polymorphism with Parkinson’s Disease in a Norwegian population. Parkinson’s Disease, 973298
  • Patil KS, Basak I, Pal R, Ho HP, Alves G, Chang EJ, Larsen JP, Møller SG. (2015) A Proteomics Approach to Investigate miR-153-3p and miR-205-5p Targets in Neuroblastoma Cells. PLoS One. 10:e0143969.
  • Basak I, Patil KS, Alves G, Larsen JP, Møller SG. (2016) microRNAs as neuroregulators, biomarkers and therapeutic agents in neurodegenerative diseases. Cell Mol Life Sci. 73: 811-827.
  • Pal R, Larsen JP, Møller SG (2015) The Potential of Proteomics in Understanding Neurodegeneration. Int. Rev. Neurobiol. 121:25-58.
  • Linster E, Stephan I, Bienvenut WV, Maple-Grødem J, Myklebust LM, Huber M, Reichelt M, Sticht C, Møller SG, Meinnel T, Arnesen T, Giglione C, Hell R, Wirtz M. (2015) Downregulation of N-terminal acetylation triggers ABA-mediated drought responses in Arabidopsis. Nat. Commun. 6:7640.
  • Jami MS, Salehi-Najafabadi Z, Ahmadinejad F, Hoedt E, Chaleshtori MH, Ghatrehsamani M, Neubert TA, Larsen JP, Møller SG. (2015) Edaravone leads to proteome changes indicative of neuronal cell protection in response to oxidative stress. Neurochem. Int. 90:134-41.
  • Dunne A, Maple-Grødem J, Gargano D, Haslam RP, Napier JA, Chua NH, Russell R, Møller SG. (2014) Modifying fatty acid profiles through a new cytokinin-based plastid transformation system. Plant J. 80:1131-8.
  • Abdullah R, Basak I, Patil KS, Alves G, Larsen JP, Møller SG. (2014) Parkinson's disease and age: The obvious but largely unexplored link. Exp. Gerontol. 68:33-8.
  • Jami MS, Pal R, Hoedt E, Neubert TA, Larsen JP, Møller SG. (2014) Proteome analysis reveals roles of L-DOPA in response to oxidative stress in neurons. BMC Neurosci. 15:93.
  • Björkblom B, Maple-Grødem J, Puno MR, Odell M, Larsen JP, Møller SG. (2014) Reactive oxygen species-mediated DJ-1 monomerization modulates intracellular trafficking involving karyopherin β2. Mol. Cell. Biol. 34:3024-40.
  • Patil KS, Basak I, Lee S, Abdullah R, Larsen JP, Møller SG. (2014) PARK13 regulates PINK1 and subcellular relocation patterns under oxidative stress in neurons. J. Neurosci. Res. 92:1167-77.
  • Basak I, Pal R, Patil KS, Dunne A, Ho HP, Lee S, Peiris D, Maple-Grødem J, Odell M, Chang EJ, Larsen JP, Møller SG. (2014) Arabidopsis AtPARK13, which confers thermotolerance, targets misfolded proteins. J Biol Chem. 289:14458-69.
  • Gebriel M, Prabhudesai S, Uleberg KE, Larssen E, Piston D, Bjørnstad AH, Møller SG. (2014) Zebrafish brain proteomics reveals central proteins involved in neurodegeneration. J. Neurosci. Res. 92:104-15. 

Patents

  • Dr. Møller is an Assigned Inventor on 17 patents

Research Funding

Since 2002, Dr. Møller has secured over 12 million dollars in extramural research funding. He has also been successful in raising significant capital for his startup companies.

Conferences/Presentations

Since 2001, Dr. Møller has been invited to be a Plenary Speaker or Speaker at over 40 conferences on topics related to his field. He has also chaired or organized several conferences in the area of Biological Sciences.