Experience
Co-founder & Chief Operating Officer
Integrated Physiology Services Pty Ltd | 2017 - Present
Preclinical CRO providing in vivo research services to pharma and academia. Clients partnered with IPS for our ability to deliver technically demanding studies, often requiring bespoke design and execution. Experimental capabilities spanned metabolic phenotyping, chemogenetics and chronic cardiovascular radiotelemetry. Contract research operations ceased in August 2025; the company is now primarily a holding entity.
Co-founded and scaled IPS from a university spin-out into an international specialist CRO achieving ~140% annual revenue growth between 2017 and 2024.
Owned end-to-end delivery of client research programmes, from scoping and feasibility through execution, analysis and reporting; coordinated scientists, academic collaborators, external suppliers and institutional stakeholders.
Served as the primary client-facing lead; managed senior client relationships and executive reviews, aligning scientific progress, commercial scope, programme risk and delivery decisions.
Negotiated and managed commercial and contractual frameworks including proposals and pricing, MSAs, SOWs, change orders, confidentiality provisions, material-transfer agreements and milestone/payment terms.
Highlight: Led a nine-month, ~AUD $650,000 programme for a pharmaceutical client, described by the client at award as its highest-value outsourced CRO contract to date. Identified a critical protocol risk; developed structured options around scientific validity, cost, scope and timeline; and re-scoped the programme to ensure falsifiable design and delivery of actionable data.
Adjunct Research Fellow
Monash Biomedical Discovery Research Institute | 2018 - Present
Adjunct academic position within the Department of Physiology. Research contributions have spanned obesity-associated hypertension, air pollution-associated diseases, central GLP-1 receptor signalling and mechanisms of amphetamine-induced weight loss.
Contributed to a collaborative translational research programme identifying a novel insulin-independent therapeutic target for type1 diabetes, spanning rodent models through Phase 0.
Co-authored peer-reviewed research published in journals including Cell, Diabetes, eLife and Cell Reports Medicine. H-index 8; 935+ citations (Google Scholar, Aug 2026).
Peer reviewer for Frontiers in Public Health and Frontiers in Endocrinology.
BSc/MSc programme teaching and PhD student supervision.
Science & Technology Writer-Producer
Freelance | 2017–Present
Freelance science writing and media production across editorial, radio and video; translating complex scientific and technical subjects into compelling content for specialist and non-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-Data Analysis Consultant
Woodrudge Ltd. | 2016 - Present
Independent data-analysis practice supporting academic researchers. Client services are no longer actively marketed, and the company is now primarily used for independent analytical and technical projects.
Delivered statistical analysis, data visualisation and data auditing across biomedical datasets spanning radiotelemetry, radioimmunoassay, electrophysiology and immunohistochemistry.
Developed modular Python- and LLM-assisted workflows for research, data retrieval and analysis.
Research Scientist
2011 - 2016 | NeuroSolutions Ltd.
Preclinical CRO specialising in molecular neuroscience, mechanism of action studies, electrophysiology and neuropharmacology.
Delivered whole-cell patch-clamp electrophysiology contract research for clients including Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, Takeda and Upsher-Smith, investigating novel compound mechanisms of action in disease areas including neuropathic pain, depression, epilepsy and neurodegenerative disease.
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
NeuroSolutions Ltd. | PhD Scholarship, 2012–2016
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.
Selected Media
Google DeepMind | Unfolded editorial features (2022).Delivered editorial features for Google DeepMind on AlphaFold and its applications in life science research and drug discovery.
BBC World Service & BBC Radio 4 | Surprising Ancestry of The Ancient Egyptians (2017); Why Humans Don’t Have a Penis Bone (2017). Wrote, produced and presented radio features for BBC Science in Action.
Monash University | Physiology web series (2020). Produced and directed a six-episode science communication miniseries.