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    • Home
    • Our Lab
    • Lab Members
    • Research
    • STEM Learning Study
    • Publications
    • Expeditions
    • Science Diplomacy
    • Killer Snails
    • 2030STEM
    • Outreach
    • Former members
    • Contact
    • Job
  • Home
  • Our Lab
  • Lab Members
  • Research
  • STEM Learning Study
  • Publications
  • Expeditions
  • Science Diplomacy
  • Killer Snails
  • 2030STEM
  • Outreach
  • Former members
  • Contact
  • Job

Featured Covers

Publications

Taxonomy, Phylogeny, and Biochemical Function of Venomous Marine Snails

  • Brenner C, Hendrix J, Pollati C, Shang N, Chen T, Barragan O, Holford M. Venom CoLab: Exploring the Science of Venom for Middle School Learners. 31 October 2024
  • Naidu P, Holford M. Microscopic marvels: Decoding the role of micropeptides in innate immunity. 26 August 2024. PMID: 39188052 
  • Fedosov AE, Zaharias P, Lemarcis T, Modica MV, Holford M, Oliverio M, Kantor YI, Puillandre N. Phylogenomics of Neogastropoda: the backbone hidden in the bush . 08 March 2024. doi: 10.1093/sysbio/syae010
  • Achimba F, Faezov B, Cohen B, Dunbrack R, Holford M. Targeting Dysregulated Ion Channels in Liver Tumors with Venom Peptides. Mol Cancer Ther. 28 Nov 2023. doi: 10.1158/1535-7163.MCT-23-0256. PMID: 38015557.
  • Cerullo AR, McDermott MB, Pepsi LE, Liu ZL, Barry D, Zhang S, Yang X, Chen X, Azadi P, Holford M., Braunschweig AB Comparative Mucomic Analysis of Three Functionally Distinct Cornu aspersum Secretions 02 September 2023. PMID: 37660066.
  • Romano JD., Li H., Napolitano T., Realubit R., Karan C., Holford M., P. Tatonetti N., Discovering venom-derived drug candidates using differential gene expression 01 June 2023. PMID: 37505720.
  • Verdes A, Álvarez-Campos P, Nygren A, San Martin G, Deheyen DD, Gruber DF, Holford M. Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution of Bioluminescence in Odontosyllis (Annelida, Syllidae), Invertebrate Systematics, published by CSIRO, 27 July 2022.
  • Achrak E, Ferd J, Schulman J, Dang T, Krampis K, Holford M. VenomFlow: An Automated Bioinformatic Pipeline for Identification of Disulfide-Rich Peptides from Venom Arsenals. Methods Mol Biol. 2022;2498:89-97. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-2313-8_6. PMID: 35727542.
  • McDermott MB, Cerullo AR, Parziale JV, Achrak E. Sultana S,  Ferd J, Samad S, Deng, W Braunschweig A, Holford M. Advancing Discovery of Snail Mucins Function and Application. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 11 October 2021. PMID: 34708024.
  • Grillo CA, Holford M, Walter NG. From Flatland to Jupiter: Searching for Rules of Interaction Across Biological Scales. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 13 July 2021. PMID: 34254127.
  • Gorson J, Fassio G, Lau ES, Holford M. Diet Diversity in Carnivorous Terebrid Snails Is Tied to the Presence and Absence of a Venom Gland. Toxins, 2 February 2021. PMID: 33540609.
  • Kelly P, Napolitano T, Anand P, Ho JSK, Jabeen S, Kuppan J, Manir S, Holford M. Induced Disassembly of a Virus-Like Particle under Physiological Conditions for Venom Peptide Delivery. ACS Bioconjugate Chemistry, 11 December 2020. PMID: 33306347.
  • Cerullo A, Lai TY, Allam B, Baer A, Barnes J, Barrientos A, Deheyn DD, Fudge D, Gould J, Harrington MJ, Holford M, Hung C, Jain G, Mayer G, Medina-Munoz M, Monge J, Napolitano T, Espinosa EP, Schmidt S, Thompson E, Braunschweig AB. Comparative animal mucomics: Inspiration for functional materials from ubiquitous and understudied biopolymers. ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, 24 August 2020. PMID: 33320564.
  • Modica MV, Sunagar K, Holford M, Dutertre S. Diversity and Evolution of Animal Venoms: Neglected Targets, Ecological Interactions, Future Perspectives. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 24 March 2020.
  • Fedosov AE, Malcolm G, Terryn Y, Gorson J, Modica MV, Holford M, Puillandre M. Phylogenetic classification of the family Terebridae (Neogastropoda: Conoidea). Journal of Molluscan Studies, 9 January 2020. PMID: 19698157.  
  • Fassio G, Modica MV, Mary L, Zaharias P, Fedosov AE, Gorson J, Kantor YI, Holford M, Puillandre N. Venom Diversity and Evolution in the Most Divergent Cone Snail Genus Profundiconus. Toxins, 28 October 2019. PMID: 31661832.
  • Anand P, Filipenko P, Huaman J, Lyudmer M, Hossain M, Santamaria C, Huang K, Ogunwobi OO, Holford M. Selective Inhibition of Liver Cancer Cells Using Venom Peptide. Marine Drugs, 17 October 2019. PMID: 31627357.
  • Modica MV, Gorson J, Fedosov AE, Malcolm G, Terryn Y, Puillandre N, Holford M. Macroevolutionary analyses suggest environmental factors, not venom apparatus, play key role in Terebridae marine snail diversification. Systematic Biology, 5 September 2019. PMID: 31504987.
  • Napolitano T, Holford M. Breakthroughs in Venom Peptide Screening Methods to Advance Future Drug Discovery. Protein and Peptide Letters, 1 December 2018. PMID: 30381057.
  • Angell Y, Holford M, Moos WH. Building on Success: A Bright Future for Peptide Therapeutics. Protein and Peptide Letters, 1 December 2018. PMID: 30430932.
  • Eriksson A, Anand P, Gorson J, Grijuc C, Hadelia E, Stewart JC, Holford M, Claridge-Chang A. Using Drosophila behavioral assays to characterize terebrid venom-peptide bioactivity. Nature Scientific Reports, 15 October 2018. PMID: 30323294.
  • Holford M, Daly M, King G, Norton R. Venoms to the rescue. Science, 31 August 2018. PMID: 30166472.
  • Verdes A, Holford M. Beach to Bench to Bedside: Marine Invertebrate Biochemical Adaptations and Their Applications in Biotechnology and Biomedicine. Marine Organisms as Model Systems in Biology and Medicine, 7 August 2018. PMID: 30083928.
  • Angell Y, Holford M, Moos WH. Peptides 2020: A Clear Therapeutic Vision. Protein & Peptide Letters, 2018. PMID: 30706773.
  • Verdes A, Simpson D, Holford M. Are Fireworms Venomous? Evidence for the Convergent Evolution of Toxin Homologs in Three Species of Fireworms (Annelida, Amphinomidae). Genome Biology and Evolution, 23 December 2017. PMID: 29293976.
  • Leffler AE, Kuryatov A, Zebroski HA, Powell SR, Filipenko P, Hussein AK, Gorson J, Heizmann A, Lyskov S, Tsien R, Poget SF, Nicke A, Lindstrom J, Rudy B, Bonneau R, Holford M. Discovery of Peptide Ligands Through Docking and Virtual Screening at Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Homology Models. PNAS, 5 September 2017. PMID: 28874590.
  • Verdes A, Anand P, Gorson J, Jannetti S, Kelly P, Leffler A, Simpson D, Ramrattan G, Holford M. From Mollusks to Medicine: A Venomics Approach for the Discovery and Characterization of Therapeutics from Terebridae Peptide Toxins. Toxins, 19 April 2016. PMID: 27104567.
  • Gorson J, Holford M. Small Packages, Big Returns: Uncovering the Venom Diversity of Small Invertebrate Conoidean Snails. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 1 July 2016. PMID: 27371389.
  • Moon J, Gorson J, Wright M, Yee L, Khawaja S, Shin HY, Karma Y, Musunri R, Yun M, Holford M. Characterization and Recombinant Expression of Terebrid Venom Peptide from Terebra Guttata. Toxins, 3 March 2016. PMID: 26950153.
  • Fry B, Koludarov I, Jackson T, Holford M, Terrat Y, Casewell N, Unheim E, Vetter I, Ali S, Low D, Sunagar K. Seeing the woods for the Trees: Understanding Venom Evolution as a Guide for Biodiversity Royal Society of Chemistry, 10 February 2015.
  • Kelly P, Anand P, Uvaydov A, Chakravartula S, Sherpa C, Pires E, O’Neil A, Douglas T, Holford M. Developing a Dissociative Nanocontainer for Peptide Drug Delivery. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 9 October 2015. PMID: 26473893.
  • Anand P, O’Neil A, Lin E, Douglas T, Holford M. Tailored delivery of analgesic ziconotide across a blood brain barrier model using viral nanocontainers. Nature Scientific Reports, 3 August 2015. PMID: 26234920.
  • Gorson J, Ramrattan G, Verdes A, Wright ME, Kantor Y, Srinivasan R, Musunuri R, Packer D, Albano G, Qiu WG, Holford M. Molecular Diversity and Gene Evolution of the Venom Arsenal of Terebridae Predatory Marine Snails. Genome Biology and Evolution, 28 May 2015. PMID: 26025559.
  • Modica MV, Puillandre N, Castelin M, Zhang Y, Holford M. A Good Compromise: Rapid and Robust Species Proxies for Inventorying Biodiversity Hotspots Using the Terebridae (Gastropoda: Conoidea). PLoS ONE, 8 July 2014. PMID: 25003611.
  • Anand P, Grigoryan A, Bhuiyan MH, Ueberheide B, Russell V, Quinonez J, Moy P, Chait B, Poget S, Holford M. Sample limited characterization of a novel disulfide-rich venom peptide toxin from terebrid marine snail Terebra variegata. PLoS ONE, 8 April 2014. PMID: 24713808.
  • Puillandre N, Modica MV, Zhang Y, Sirovich L, Boisselier MC, Cruad C, Holford M, Samadi S. Large-scale species delimitation method for hyperdiverse groups. Molecular Ecology, 11 April 2012. PMID: 22494453.
  • Castelin M, Puillandre N, Kantor YI, Modica MV, Terryn Y, Cruaud C, Bouchet P, Holford M. Macroevolution of Venom Apparatus in Auger Snails (Gastropoda; Conoidea; Terebridae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 14 March 2012. PMID: 22440724.
  • Bhuiyan M, Anand,P, Grigoryan A, Zhuang J, Holford M, Poget S. NMR Structure of VarI, a Novel Bioactive Peptide Toxin from Terebrid Marine Snails. Biophysical Journal, 29 February 2012.
  • Puillandre N, Holford M. The Terebridae and teretoxins: Combining phylogeny and anatomy for concerted discovery of bioactive compounds. BMC Chemical Biology, 17 September 2010. PMID: 20849634.
  • Modica MV, Holford M. The Neogastropoda: Evolutionary Innovations of Predatory Marine Snails with Remarkable Pharmacological Potential. Evolutionary Biology – Concepts, Molecular and Morphological Evolution (Springer), 25 July 2010.
  • Holford M, Auer S, Laqua M, Ibanez-Tallon I. Manipulating neuronal circuits with endogenous and recombinant cell-surface tethered modulators. Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, 20 October 2009. PMID: 19915728.
  • Holford M, Puillande N, Modica MV, Watkins M, Collins R, Bermingham E, Olivera BM. Correlating Molecular Phylogeny with Venom Apparatus Occurrence in Panamic Auger Snails (Terebridae). PLoS ONE, 5 November 2009. PMID: 19890382.
  • Kholer F, Holford M, Van Tuo D, Thanh HH. Exploring a Largely Unknown Fauna: On the Diversity of Pachychilid Freshwater Gastropods in Vietnam (Caenogastropoda: Cerithioidea). Molluscan Research, 30 September 2009.
  • Holford M, Zhang M, Catlin P, Azam L, Hanuman K, Green G, Watkins BR, Oqnby M, Yoshikami JP, Bulaj G, Olivera BM. Pruning Nature: Biodiversity-Delivered Discovery of Novel Sodium Channel-Blocking Conotoxin from Conus bullatus. Toxicon, 20 November 2008. PMID: 18950653.
  • Holford M, Puillandre N, Terryn Y, Cruaud C, Olivera B, Bouchet P. Evolution of the Toxoglossa Venom Apparatus as Inferred by Molecular Phylogeny of the Terebridae. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 6 October 2008. PMID: 18840603.

Pigmentation in Nature

  • Hauber ME, Bond AL, Kouwenberg A, Robertson GJ, Hansen ES, Holford M, Dainson M, Luro A, Dale J. The Chemical Basis of a Signal of Individual Identity: Shell Pigment Concentrations Track the Unique Appearance of Common Murre Eggs. Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 10 April 2019. PMID: 30966949.
  • Dainson M, Mark M, Hossain M, Yoo B, Holford M, McNeil SE, Riehl C, Hauber ME. How to Make a Mimic? Brood Parasitic Striped Cuckoo Eggs Match Host Shell Color but Not Pigment Concentrations. Journal of Chemical Ecology, 6 July 2018. PMID: 29978431.
  • Hauber ME, Dainson M, Baldassarre DT, Hossain M, Holford M, Riehl C. The perceptual and chemical bases of egg discrimination in communally nesting greater anis Crotophaga major. Journal of Avian Biology, 15 June 2018.
  • Verdes A, Cho W, Hossain M, Brennan PLR, Hanley D, Grim T, Hauber ME, Holford M. Nature’s Palette: Characterization of Shared Pigments in Colorful Avian and Mollusk Shells. Plos ONE, 9 December 2015. PMID: 26650398.
  • Lippens D, Branislav I, D’Alba L, Hanley D, Verdes A, Holford M, Waterhouse G, Grim T, Hauber M, Shawkey M. The Cuticle Modulates Ultraviolet Reflectance of Avian Eggshells. Biology Open, 13 April 2015. PMID: 25964661.
  • Igic B, Nunez V, Voss HU, Croston R, Aidala Z, López AV, Van Tatenhove A, Holford M, Shawkey MD, Hauber ME. Using 3D printed eggs to examine the egg-rejection behaviour of wild birds. PeerJ, 26 May 2015. PMID: 26038720.

Advancing International Scientific Cooperation and STEM Initiatives

  • 2030STEM Collaboration, Adams J., Asai D., Cohen R., Delgado A, Danette S., Faherty J., Holford M., Jarvis E., Martinez M., Mays A., Mugila L., Narinesingh V., Phillips C., Pfund C., Silveyra P., Accelerating and Scaling Mentoring Strategies to Build Infrestructure that Supports Underrepresented Groups in STEM, February 2023.
  • 2030STEM Collaboration, Adams J., Berry C., Cohen R., Delgado A., Faherty J., Gonzales E., Holford M., Kozik A., Jennings L., Mays A., Mugila L., Pittman N., Silveyra P., #Change: How Social Media is Accelerating STEM Inclusion, December 2022.
  • Brenner, C., Hendrix, J.O., Holford, M. (2022). See It and Be It: Designing Immersive Experiences to Build STEM Skills and Identity in Elementary and Middle School. In: MacDowell, P., Lock, J. (eds) Immersive Education. Springer, Cham. 
  • Brenner C, DesPortes K, Ochoa Hendrix J, Holford M. GeoForge: investigating integrated virtual reality and personalized websites for collaboration in middle school science. Information and Learning Sciences, 15 July 2021.
  • Holford M, Soler MG, Oni T. Twelve Months of COVID-19: Shaping the Next Era of Science Diplomacy. AAAS Science and Diplomacy, 22 January 2021.
  • Holford M, Oni T. A little chaos could be just what the SDGs need: here’s the sense behind it. World Economic Forum Agenda, 6 November 2020.
  • Holford M. 4 ways science should transform after COVID-19. World Economic Forum Agenda, 17 June 2020.
  • Holford M. 5 tips for working from home as a woman in STEM. World Economic Forum Agenda, 1 May 2020.
  • Holford M, Nichols R. The Challenge of Building Science Diplomacy Capabilities for Early Career Academic Investigators. AAAS Science and Diplomacy, 29 January 2018.
  • Holford M, Portnoy L. Children should be playing more games in the classroom. Here’s why. World Economic Forum Agenda, 11 May 2017.
  • Holford M, Gadjanski I, Zaringhalam M. Too hot, too cold. What porridge can tell us about women in science. World Economic Forum Agenda, 22 February 2017.
  • Fischer M, Holford M. Jobs of the Future: What will a science career look like in 2030?. NatureJobs, 15 January 2016.
  • Holford M, Nichols R. A Tale of Two States. Science, 31 July 2015. PMID: 26228115.
  • Holford M, Gadjanski I. Bench to Business: How women in STEM academia can use corporate models to their favour. NatureBlog, 10 November 2014.
  • Holford M. Made-to-Measure Postdocs. Nature, 25 October 2006. PMID: 17133662.
  • Holford M. Taking Chemistry Global – International Opportunities for Chemists. ACS Graduate Education Newsletter, 2005.
  • Slimowitz J, Holford M. International Activities and the US National Science Foundation. Bridges, 13 July 2005.

Development and Application of Expressed Protein Ligation

  • Minakhin L, Camarero JA, Holford M, Parker C, Muir TW, Severinov K. Mapping the Molecular Interface between the Sigma (70) Subunit of E. coli RNA Polymerase and T4 AsiA. Journal of Molecular Biology, 2 March 2001. PMID: 11243776.
  • Huse M, Holford M, Kuriyan J, Muir TW. Semisynthesis of Hyperphosphorylated Type I TGFβ Receptor: Addressing the Mechanism of Kinase Activation. Journal of American Chemical Society, 15 August 2000.
  • Ayers B, Blaschke UK, Camarero JA, Cotton GJ, Holford M, Muir TW. Introduction of unnatural amino acids into proteins using expressed protein ligation. Peptide Science, 1 January 1999. PMID: 10685045.
  • Holford M, Muir TW. Adding ‘splice’ to protein engineering. Structure, 15 August 1998. PMID: 9739093.