Office of Research and Economic Development:University of North Texas

Denise Perry Simmons, Ph.D.
Senior Director of Research Development

Dr. Denise Perry Simmons serves the Office of Research and Economic Development as the Senior Director of Research Development - specializing in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. In this capacity she is charged with increasing UNT research growth through proposal development.

Dr. Simmons came to UNT from the Hackensack University Medical Center where she held the position of Director of Clinical Research at the John Theurer Cancer Center. As Director, her responsibilities included contract and budget negotiation, management of grant and foundation awards, oversight of clinical research activities and selection of clinical studies to ensure that cutting-edge therapies were available for patients; grant and foundation development-among which is the receipt of the 2008 ASCO grant in clinical cancer research, forging new collaborations between funding agencies, pharmaceutical companies, and independent research groups; facilitation of the application process of investigator-initiated research grants; and education of physicians, nurses, and research data coordinators in FDA guidelines, Good Clinical Practice (GCP) and Good Laboratory Practice (GLP).

Dr. Simmons obtained her Ph.D. in the Biological Sciences from the University of Texas at Austin where she completed a combined degree with U.T. M.D. Anderson in Cancer Research. She has received fellow awards in medicinal chemistry at the University of Texas Drug Dynamics Institute and the National Institutes of Health-National Cancer Institute in the Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cellular Tumor Promotion, as well as NIH Outstanding Mentor and Technology Transfer Awards. She has developed national and international melanoma treatment-related patents, published in Carcinogenesis, Journal of Virology, Journal of American Chemical Society, Clinical Chemistry, Journal of Nutritional Immunology and serves as reviewer for Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters and Cancer Genetics and Cytogenetics; Cytogenetic and Genome Research.