NIAID Selects Director of Division of Intramural Research

June 14, 2016

Steven M. Holland, M.D.
Director, Division of Intramural Research

Credit

NIH

Steven M. Holland, M.D.
Director, Division of Intramural Research

Credit: NIH

Steven M. Holland, M.D., has been named Director of the Division of Intramural Research (DIR) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. He will lead the institute’s efforts to conduct basic and clinical research in a wide range of disciplines related to immunology, allergy and infectious diseases.

“Dr. Holland is widely respected within NIH and beyond as a highly skilled and dedicated physician-scientist and administrator,” said NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. “I am confident that with Steve’s leadership and scientific acumen, the NIAID intramural program will continue to build upon its strong tradition of discoveries that improve human health.”

Dr. Holland has served as chief of NIAID’s Laboratory of Clinical Infectious Diseases since 2004 and as deputy director for NIH Intramural Clinical Research since 2011. His areas of research focus have included Hyper-Immunoglobulin E syndrome, also known as Job’s syndrome, a rare genetic disorder characterized by recurrent and often severe skin and lung infections, and the genetic conditions that predispose certain individuals to acquiring mycobacterial infections. More recently, he has studied the genetic conditions that make some people more susceptible to severe coccidioidomycosis, a serious fungal disease of the lungs and tissues, and acquired forms of anticytokine autoimmunity, which can predispose people to developing opportunistic infections.

After receiving his B.A. from St. John’s College, Annapolis, Maryland, in 1979, Dr. Holland earned his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University of School of Medicine, Baltimore, in 1983. He remained at Hopkins for his internal medicine residency, chief residency and fellowship in infectious diseases focusing on chlamydia diagnosis and pathogenesis. Dr. Holland joined NIAID in 1989 as a National Research Council fellow in NIAID’s Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology, where he worked on rev-mediated transcriptional regulation of HIV. In 1991, he moved to NIAID’s Laboratory of Host Defenses to focus on the pathogenesis and management of chronic granulomatous disease, as well as other congenital immune defects affecting phagocytes, the cells that protect the body by engulfing and absorbing harmful foreign particles, bacteria and dead or dying cells. He received tenure from the NIH in 2000 and became chief of the Immunopathogenesis Section, which now is part of the Laboratory of Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Dr. Holland has authored more than 500 publications. Among his honors, he has received the American College of Physicians Award for Science, the Boyle Scientific Achievement Award of the Immune Deficiency Foundation, the American Society for Microbiology Abbott Award, the Erwin Neter Award of the Association of Medical Laboratory Immunologists, and the NIH Distinguished Clinical Teacher Award. He also has been recognized as an NIH Distinguished Investigator. 
 
Dr. Holland replaces Kathryn Zoon, Ph.D., who retired as DIR director in December 2015. In addition to his new role, Dr. Holland will continue to serve as chief of the Immunopathogenesis Section.