Experience

Co-founder
Integrated Physiology Services Pty Ltd | 2017 - Present
Preclinical contract research organisation, specialising in obesity and diabetes drug development, serving academia, Big Pharma, and VC-backed start-ups.

• Led client-facing delivery for clients including Novo Nordisk and Flagship Pioneering.

• Delivered programmes spanning obesity, diabetes, GLP-1 receptor agonists, receptor pharmacology and mechanism-of-action studies.

• Coordinated cross-functional delivery across scientists, academic collaborators, institutional governance teams, external suppliers and international client stakeholders.

• Managed senior client relationships across scoping, proposals, pricing, analysis, and reporting.

• Owned business development, proposals, pricing and senior client relationships; scaled a university spin-out into a commercially active international CRO with average year-on-year revenue growth of ~140%.

Adjunct Research Fellow
Monash Biomedical Discovery Research Institute | 2018 - Present
Translational neuroscience, metabolism and drug discovery.

• Scientific writing and editing co-authored publications in Cell, Diabetes, eLife and Cell Reports Medicine.

• Peer reviewer for Frontiers in Public Health; Frontiers in Endocrinology

• Literature review, published in Frontiers in Public Health, selected by the Danish Health Authority advisory committee for decision-maker bulletin.

• BSc and MSc programme teaching, PhD student supervision.

• Contributed to translational research programme identifying a novel insulin-independent therapeutic target for type-1 diabetes, spanning rodent models, to Phase 0 human studies.

Science & Technology Writer-Producer
Freelance | 2017–Present
Multimedia science communication for public, institutional and specialist audiences.

• Delivered editorial features for Google DeepMind on AlphaFold and applications in life science research and drug discovery, translating AI-biology developments into accurate, accessible narratives.

• Produced, directed and presented BBC World Service / BBC Radio 4 features for Science in Action, communicating technical research to global public audiences.

• Produced and directed a six-part digital science communication series for a university physiology department, designed for web and social channels.

• Authored public-facing science articles translating peer-reviewed research on metabolic physiology, appetite, glucose tolerance and weight cycling for non-specialist readers.

• Applied a consistent communication approach: reduce complexity without distorting meaning, find the public relevance, and preserve audience trust through accuracy and clarity.

Founder-Director
Woodrudge Ltd. | 2016 - Present
Independent research and technical writing company.

• Provided data analysis, technical writing, scientific writing, editing, and research support services to academic and commercial clients.

• Created original visual assets for publication including schematics, and experimental data.

• Built modular Python/LLM-supported tools for data retrieval, analysis, strategy configuration, and backtesting.

• Developed a working understanding of AI-assisted productivity, hallucination risk, validation, domain-expertise dependence and responsible adoption in analytical workflows.

Research Scientist
2011 - 2016 | NeuroSolutions Ltd.
Preclinical contract research company.

• Delivered electrophysiology contract research investigating pipeline drug mechanisms of action, for clients including Johnson & Johnson and Eli Lilly.

• Owned experiments, analysis and reporting, supporting drug-development decisions.

Education

• PhD Neuroscience | Warwick Medical School & Monash University, 2017

• MSc Science Media Production | Imperial College London, 2017

• BSc (Hons) Biomedical Science | University of Warwick, 2011

Selected Awards & Fellowships

• Federation of Asian & Oceanian Physiological Sciences | Young Scientist Travel Award, 2019

• The Leverhulme Trust | Study Abroad Studentship, 2014–2016

• The Rhodes Trust | The Association of Rhodes Scholars in Australia Travel Scholarship, 2014–2015

• Harold Mitchell Foundation | Travel Fellowship, 2014

Selected Peer-Reviewed Publications

• Simonds, S.E., Pryor, J.T., Lam, B.Y.H., Dowsett, G.K., Mustafa, T., Munder, A., Elysee, K., Balland, E., Cowley, L.O., Yeo, G.S.H., Lawrence, A., Spanswick, D.C. and Cowley, M.A. (2025) 'The metabolic and cardiovascular effects of amphetamine are partially mediated by the central melanocortin system', Cell Reports Medicine, 6(2), 101936. doi: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2025.101936.

• Pryor, J.T., Cowley, L.O. and Simonds, S.E. (2022) 'The physiological effects of air pollution: particulate matter, physiology and disease', Frontiers in Public Health, 10, 882569. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.882569.

• Simonds, S.E., Pryor, J.T., Koegler, F.H., Buch-Rasmussen, A.S., Kelly, L.E., Grove, K.L. and Cowley, M.A. (2019) 'Determining the effects of combined liraglutide and phentermine on metabolic parameters, blood pressure, and heart rate in lean and obese male mice', Diabetes, 68(4), pp. 683–695. doi: 10.2337/db18-1149.

• Dodd, G.T., Michael, N.J., Lee-Young, R.S., Mangiafico, S.P., Pryor, J.T., Munder, A.C., Simonds, S.E., Brüning, J.C., Zhang, Z.Y., Cowley, M.A., Andrikopoulos, S., Horvath, T.L., Spanswick, D. and Tiganis, T. (2018) 'Insulin regulates POMC neuronal plasticity to control glucose metabolism', eLife, 7, e38704. doi: 10.7554/eLife.38704.

• Simonds, S.E., Pryor, J.T. and Cowley, M.A. (2018) 'Repeated weight cycling in obese mice causes increased appetite and glucose intolerance', Physiology & Behavior, 194, pp. 184–190. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2018.05.026.

• van den Top, M., Zhao, F.Y., Viriyapong, R., Michael, N.J., Munder, A.C., Pryor, J.T., Renaud, L.P. and Spanswick, D. (2017) 'The impact of ageing, fasting and high-fat diet on central and peripheral glucose tolerance and glucose-sensing neural networks in the arcuate nucleus', Journal of Neuroendocrinology, 29(10), e12528. doi: 10.1111/jne.12528.

• Simonds, S.E., Pryor, J.T. and Cowley, M.A. (2017) 'Does leptin cause an increase in blood pressure in animals and humans?', Current Opinion in Nephrology and Hypertension, 26(1), pp. 20–25. doi: 10.1097/MNH.0000000000000287. [Review]

• Simonds, S.E., Pryor, J.T., Ravussin, E., Greenway, F.L., DiLeone, R., Allen, A.M., Bassi, J., Elmquist, J.K., Keogh, J.M., Henning, E., Myers, M.G. Jr, Licinio, J., Brown, R.D., Enriori, P.J., O'Rahilly, S., Sternson, S.M., Grove, K.L., Spanswick, D.C., Farooqi, I.S. and Cowley, M.A. (2014) 'Leptin mediates the increase in blood pressure associated with obesity', Cell, 159(6), pp. 1404–1416. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2014.10.058.