Mandë Holford, PhD
Dr. Mandë Holford is a Professor in Chemistry at Hunter College and CUNY-Graduate Center, with scientific appointments at The American Museum of Natural History and Weill Cornell Medicine. Dr. Holford’s Laboratory of Chemical and Biological Diversity demonstrates the scientific path from mollusks to medicine - examining how venoms evolved, developed, and function over time, and how we can use this knowledge as a roadmap for discovering and characterizing peptide natural products with therapeutic potential. She is particularly interested in using venoms and venom peptides to study rapidly evolving genes and to develop invertebrate venom gland model systems that can be genetically manipulated to advance discoveries in novel gene regulation, expression, and function. Her work combines scientific research, education and diplomacy to understand the extraordinary marine biodiversity on our planet and transform this knowledge for the benefit of human and planetary health. Her honors include the inaugural endowed Anne Welsh McNulty Chair in Science Innovation and Leadership, NIH Pioneer Award, an Allen Institute Distinguished Investigator Award, an NSF CAREER award, a WINGS Women of Discovery Fellowship, a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship, selected as a World Economic Forum Champion Young Scientist and Sustainability Pioneer, a fellow of the California Academy of Sciences, and a member of the NASEM Roundtable on Science Diplomacy. She is actively involved in science education, advancing the public understanding of science, and science diplomacy. She is cofounder of Killer Snails, LLC, an award winning EdTech company that uses tabletop, digital, and XR games about extreme creatures in nature, like snails that eat fish, as a conduit to advance scientific learning in K-12 classrooms. Dr. Holford is a Life Member of the Council of Foreign Relations. Her PhD is from The Rockefeller University.
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