Summary
After reading Chemistry at Oxford, Simon Kroll completed undergraduate medical training at Oxford University Medical School, qualifying in 1980. His initial paediatric training was at Oxford, working under the mentorship of David Baum and Peter Tizard. After MRCP(UK), a short spell in Infectious Diseases at Great Ormond Street led to a Clinical Lectureship, and later a University Lectureship, in Richard Moxon’s Department in Oxford, where during tenure of a Lister Institute Research Fellowship he gained his first consultant post – in Paediatric Infectious Diseases – in 1988. In 1993 he moved to Imperial College and St Mary’s Hospital as Professor of Paediatrics and Molecular Infectious Diseases. He was elected FRCP in 1995, FRCPCH in 1997 and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2001.
From 2000 to 2008 he served two terms as a member of the UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), and since 2001 has been a member of the UK Health Protection Agency’s Meningococcus Forum. He is a member of the NICE Meningitis Guideline Development Group, and chairs the Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee of The Meningitis Trust, as well as serving as a member of the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine’s Scientific Advisory Committee.
The activities of his research group (the Molecular Infectious Diseases Group, MIDG, established with Paul Langford) have focused on the genetic and molecular basis for the virulence of bacterial pathogens, in particular Haemophilus influenzae and Neisseria meningitidis, responsible for life-threatening infections such as meningitis and septicaemia in previously healthy children. He has published over 100 papers in scientific journals on these and related topics.
Publications
Journals
Kiu R, Shaw AG, Sim K, et al., 2023, Particular genomic and virulence traits associated with preterm infant-derived toxigenic Clostridium perfringens strains, Nature Microbiology, Vol:8, ISSN:2058-5276, Pages:1160-1175
Sim K, Powell E, Emma C, et al., 2023, Development of the gut microbiota during early life in premature and term infants, Gut Pathogens, Vol:15, ISSN:1757-4749
Shaw A, Sim K, Rose G, et al., 2021, Premature neonatal gut microbial community patterns supporting an epithelial TLR-mediated pathway for necrotizing enterocolitis, Bmc Microbiology, Vol:21, ISSN:1471-2180, Pages:1-11
Kroll JS, Hall L, Kiu R, et al., 2020, Microbiota supplementation with Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus modifies the preterm infant gut microbiota and metabolome: an observational study, Cell Reports Medicine, Vol:1, ISSN:2666-3791
Shaw A, Cornwell E, Sim K, et al., 2020, Dynamics of toxigenic Clostridium perfringens colonisation in a cohort of prematurely born neonatal infants, Bmc Pediatrics, Vol:20, ISSN:1471-2431