Edith Sim

Sim was born and raised in Hilltown, Dundee.[1] Her father was head of science at a high school and her mother worked in a sewing factory. She was an only child, and her grandmother died of tuberculosis. She attended Morgan Academy, where she was the only girl in her chemistry class. She eventually attended a short course at the University of Edinburgh in biochemistry, which motivated her to apply for an undergraduate degree. She moved to the University of Oxford as a doctoral researcher. After earning her doctorate she moved to Grenoble, where she worked as a postdoctoral researcher.[1]

Sim's research is at the intersection of chemistry and biology. She joined the faculty at Oxford in 1983, where she was made Head of Pharmacology in 2000.[2] She dedicated her career to understanding the enzyme in tuberculosis. She identified the structure of arylamine N-acetyltransferase and defined the mechanism of action using a catalytic triad. In 2010, Sim moved to Kingston University as dean of science, Engineering and Computing.[2]

In 2012, Sim was awarded the British Pharmacological Society John Vane Medal.[3][4] She was appointed to the governing body of Abertay University in 2022.[1]

• 2012 John Vane Medal[4]
• 2015 Lifetime achievement award from the Arylamine N-acetyltransferases Workshop Group[3]

• Seymour Garte; Laura Gaspari; Anna-Karin Alexandrie; et al. (1 December 2001). "Metabolic gene polymorphism frequencies in control populations". Cancer Epidemiology. 10 (12): 1239–1248. ISSN 1055-9965. PMID 11751440. Wikidata Q46857953.
• Robert Van der Geize; Katherine Yam; Thomas Heuser; et al. (30 January 2007). "A gene cluster encoding cholesterol catabolism in a soil actinomycete provides insight into Mycobacterium tuberculosis survival in macrophages". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 104 (6): 1947–1952. Bibcode:2007PNAS..104.1947V. doi:10.1073/PNAS.0605728104. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 1794314. PMID 17264217. Wikidata Q28486798.
• Kostas P. Vatsis; Wendell W. Weber; Douglas A. Bell; et al. (February 1995). "Nomenclature for N-acetyltransferases". Pharmacogenetics and Genomics. 5 (1): 1–17. doi:10.1097/00008571-199502000-00001. ISSN 1744-6872. PMID 7773298. Wikidata Q28302652.