Sanford (Sandy) Simon was trained in physiology and biophysics and focused much of his efforts on studying single events to avoid the loss of information that occurs in macroscope measurements from averaging: What happens in a nerve cell near a single calcium channel, how do single proteins cross the membranes of the cells, how to individual phage cross the membrane, single vesicles exocytose or endocytose, how do single viruses assemble or how do single nuclear pores function in the cells to regulate transport. After his daughter was diagnosed with the usually fatal liver cancer, fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma, he refocused his lab to study this single individual cancer. The results of his lab, on pathogenesis, the development of therapeutics both radically advance our understanding of this cancer, but provide a roadmap to be used on other rare diseases.
