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Member: Simone Sommer MD, MPH
Simone Sommer, MD, MPH is the visionary and President of the Chordoma Foundation, which she formed after her son and best friend, Josh, was diagnosed with a chordoma in 2006. Dr. Sommer is dedicated to improving the quality of life for people affected by chordomas, and has devoted herself to bringing about effective treatments, and ultimately a cure for this deadly bone cancer.
As a full-time volunteer from 2006 through 2009, she has singlehandedly managed all the operations, coordinated and secured $50,000 of NIH funding for the two International Chordoma Research Workshops, and coordinated the two International Chordoma Community Conferences, while leading the research efforts. Under Dr. Sommer’s direction, the Chordoma Foundation has initiated numerous collaborative research projects with scientists and physicians at institutions across the world and designed a roadmap to find improved treatments and a cure. Most notably she obtained the legal rights for the Chordoma Foundation to disseminate the one valid chordoma cell line in the world which has spawned new collaborations with 25 researchers. In addition she postulated the link between Tuberous Sclerosis and chordoma and initiated the research collaborations between Dr. Vijayah Ramesh and a team of experts at Massachusetts General Hospital in March 2007. This pivotal research into the role of the mTor pathway has spawned new treatments that have already proven helpful for chordoma patients with end-stage disease. Since the inception of the foundation in 2007, Dr. Sommer leads a coordinated international research effort to find a cure for her son Josh and others diagnosed with chordoma.
Dr. Sommer, is a graduate of George Washington University School of Medicine. She completed her internship at Duke University Medical Center and completed a Residency and Faculty Development Fellowship in Family Medicine at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Dr. Sommer also holds a Masters Degree in Public Health in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina School of Public Health. She was formerly Associate Clinical Professor at the University of North Carolina, Department of Family-Medicine and previously served as Medical Director of the Guilford County Health Department Infectious and Chronic Disease Prevention Program. She is past president of Sommer Health Services of Greensboro, North Carolina, which delivered comprehensive on-site corporate health promotion, disease prevention and targeted interventions for self-insured companies. Dr. Sommer also has advocacy experience as president of the Mold Advocacy Prevention Education and Research Coalition.
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