Dr. David Holden

Biography

David Holden graduated from the University of Durham in the UK in 1977 and completed his PhD in Microbiology at University College London in 1981. He held postdoctoral fellowships in Canada and the USA before returning to the UK in 1988 to work in the Genetics Division at the National Institute for Medical Research in London. In 1990, he was appointed as a Lecturer at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London, eventually becoming a full Professor of Molecular Microbiology in 1995. Holden served as the Director of the Centre for Molecular Bacteriology and Infection from 2012 to 2019 and was appointed Regius Professor of Infectious Disease in the UK in 2016, a title conferred by Imperial College as part of the Queen's 90th birthday celebrations. He is known for inventing a technique called signature-tagged mutagenesis, which is used to identify mutants with altered growth in mixed populations. His group has identified numerous genes in Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, and Salmonella that are required for virulence. Holden is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the American Academy of Microbiology, and the Academy of Medical Sciences in the UK, and he is an EMBO Member. He co-founded the vaccine company Microscience, which was acquired by Emergent Biosolutions in 2005, and has served on the Boards of Reviewing Editors for Science magazine and on various scientific advisory boards.

Research Interests