Simon started his career at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in 2009, sequencing the genomes of emerging viruses, including A/H1N1pdm09, MERS coronavirus and ebolavirus. Through phylogenetic analysis of these genomes he helped to understand how the viruses were spreading during the outbreak and provided real-time updates to the scientific and medical communities.

After leaving the Sanger institute in 2016, Simon joined the Infectious Disease & Vaccines team at Kymab Ltd. In partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, this team helped to assess vaccine candidates targeting pathogens by using Kymab’s humanised-immune-repertoire mouse platform as a surrogate for human responses. In addition to providing computational support across all the team’s projects, Simon led the influenza and RSV programmes, working with researchers from around the world to assess the efficacy of cutting-edge vaccine candidates.

Simon joined RQ Biotechnology in 2022, bringing with him a unique computational skillset that encompasses structural, genomic, and evolutionary analysis of both viruses and human antibody repertoires.