Dr. Sims received his MD and PhD from Stony Brook University with his PhD in Genetics focused on antifungal resistance. He went on to an Internal Medicine residency at Stony Brook and from there to University of Rochester for his Infectious Diseases fellowship followed by an Infectious Diseases research fellowship focused on the impact of antiretroviral resistance mutations on the replication fitness of HIV. He was recruited to start an Infectious Diseases research program for Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, in 2006.

Dr. Sims is currently the Director of Infectious Diseases Research for Beaumont Health. He is a board-certified infectious diseases physician, a fellow of both the American College of Physicians and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and in addition to his research program maintains an active clinical practice. He teaches extensively at OUWB School of Medicine, is course director for the 3^rd year Infectious Diseases Interdisciplinary Studies course, and holds the academic rank of Professor in the Departments of Internal Medicine and Foundational Medical Studies.

Dr. Sims’ laboratory based research focuses on resistant and difficult to treat pathogens, the so-called “superbugs” as well as new diagnostics for infections. Dr. Sims runs Beaumont’s Infectious Diseases Clinical Trial Unit and has extensive clinical research experience, serving as PI on over 80 clinical trials of antibiotics and diagnostics. He has been a consultant for design of clinical trials, and a medical monitor for several multi-center trials. He has extensive collaborations both within and outside Beaumont and is active with the Antibiotic Resistance Leadership Group (ARLG). ARLG is a research network run by the Duke Clinical Research Institute and funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to prioritize, design and execute clinical studies that will reduce the public health threat of multiple-drug resistant pathogenic bacteria, Dr. Sims has been a PI on multiple studies within ARLG. His research has been funded by grants from foundations, the State of Michigan and the federal government and he currently has an R01 funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to study prevention of C. difficile infection.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit Michigan he has focused almost all his attention on this disease and is primary investigator on multiple trials and is the author and primary investigator for the BLAST COVID-19 study which is one of the largest studies to date looking at antibody formation in response to COVID with the goal of determining if those antibodies protect people from becoming infected with the virus. He is the primary investigator and author of the SINK COVID-19 trial studying immunomodulation as a treatment for COVID-19. He is on the executive committee of the Southeast Michigan COVID-19 Consortium and has multiple collaborations across many different medical specialties for the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19.

Bio posted January 2021