Developmental Evolution

BIOGRAPHY

ACADEMIC POSITIONS:
Peter Holland is the Linacre Professor of Zoology, Associate Head of Oxford’s Department of Zoology and a Fellow of Merton College.

EDUCATION:
- MA University of Oxford (UK)
- PhD MRC National Institute for Medical Research (UK)

MEMBERSHIPS:
- Fellow of the Royal Society (UK)
- Fellow of the Linnean Society (UK)
- Governor of the Marine Biological Association (UK)
- Honorary Life Member of the Genetics Society (UK)
- Honorary Life Member of the St Petersburg Society of Naturalists (Russia)
- Honorary Research Fellow of the Natural History Museum (UK)

AWARDS:
Peter Holland was awarded the Alexander Kowalevsky Medal (2006), Blaise Pascal Medal in Natural Sciences (2005), the inaugural Genetics Society Medal (2004), the De Snoo van 't Hoogerhuys Medal (1999) and the Scientific Medal of the Zoological Society of London (1996). He was elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society in 2003.

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
The principal focus of the Holland laboratory is the interplay between genes, embryos and evolution. This research area has witnessed a remarkable resurgence of activity in the past twenty years, as new tools are applied to old problems, with the ultimate goal being to unravel the genetic basis of morphological diversity. A particular interest is the evolution of the homeobox gene family, including the Hox, ParaHox, NK and PRD class genes. In addition to extensive work on the cephalochordate amphioxus, we have worked on homeobox and other developmentally important genes in humans, rodents, fish, hagfish, ascidians, polychaetes, insects, myxozoans, placozoans and choanozoans. Additional interests are the role of gene duplication in evolution, the evolution of vertebrate genomes and molecular phylogeny of the animal kingdom.