Tatum Simonson

Tatum Simonson is Assistant Professor in the Division of Physiology at UC San Diego School of Medicine.  Dr. Simonson applies integrative physiological genomics approaches to understand systems-level responses to low oxygen (hypoxia) in highland populations.  Her research provides evidence for genetic adaptations to high altitude and identifies associations among adaptive genetic factors and physiological traits.  Aside from her research in the highlands of Tibet and Peru, her team studies natural variation in human responses to low oxygen and aims to understand the contributions of genetic and epigenetic factors to variation in hypoxia-related disease states (e.g., sleep apnea, altitude illness, and cardiopulmonary disease).  These and related interdisciplinary efforts are coordinated through the recently developed Center for Physiological Genomics of Low Oxygen (CPGLO) at UC San Diego.