News

In July 2022, we published "Synthesis and Structural Characterization of Morphologically Distinct Nanoscale Hydroxyapatites" in the Journal of Physical Chemistry...

Dr. Holland is in Indonesia at this conference sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences. He was part of the organizing committee and organized a session titled “Nature Inspired Chemistry: From Medicine to Materials” Stay tuned for updates by following us on Twitter...

Haley Swanson graduated with her PhD and Rich Thai graduated with his master’s of science degree in May 2022. PhD student Hannah Johnson also successfully passed her 3rd year qualifying exam!...

Undergraduate mechanical engineering major Francisco was interviewed about his love of Spider-Man and how it connects to his research in our lab. Check out the full story on SDSU NewsCenter!...

At the end of May 2022, the Holland Lab published a paper titled "Assembly and Thermal-Induced Polymerization of Histidine on Fumed Silica Surfaces" in ACS Earth and Space Chemistry...

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adfm.202170090...

A DOD-funded postdoctoral position is available at San Diego State University in the general area of exploring atomic and molecular level structure and dynamics in spider silk proteins with solution and solid-state NMR together with cryo-TEM and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Developing a fundamental understanding of how spider silk proteins assemble into high performance biomaterials will impact applications in the defense, medical and space exploration sectors. The biochemical transforma...

This will provide Yuan a much needed break from her TA responsibilities this Spring to focus on her hydroxyapatite bio-nano interface project to develop bone mimetics....

This fellowship will support Dillan for the remainder of his PhD....

The AFSOR grant is for 900K to investigate the hierarchical assembly process of spider silk and natural materials in general. The focus is on understanding the molecular and nanoscale design rules for spider silk proteins using a combination of NMR and cryo-EM methods in conjunction with molecular dynamics simulations. This work is being conducted in collaboration with Nathan Gianneschi’s Lab and the University of Northwestern. The ARO grant is for is 365K to study aciniform spider silk as...

Congratulations Haley Swanson for receiving the NASA Minority University Research Education fellowship! This fellowship is renewable for up to three years and is part of ongoing research to study origin of life chemistry....

Congratulations to Dillan Stengel for winning the Jivan and S.C. Tong Endowed Fellowship and the Provost Award for Research Scholarship at the Student Research Symposium!...

Congratulations to Dillan Stengel for winning the Paul G. and Margaret F. Peninger Memorial Scholarship! Also congratulations to David Onofrei who was awarded a Graduate Research Fellow at SDSU!...

Holland Lab receives DURIP equipment Grant for: “Acquisition of a T150 Mechanical Testing System for In situ Structural Characterization of Nanoscale Animal Silks under Strain”...

Dr. Holland will be presenting his talk, “The Molecular Mechanisms of Spider Silk Assembly” at the Sheffield Silk Conference in the UK on July 26th....

Holland Lab receives Course Redesign with Technology Grant to “Redesign General Chemistry, CHEM-200”...

Holland Lab receives CSUPERB Grant on a Faculty-Student Collaborative Research titled “Molecular and Hierarchical Structures Formed by Spider Silk Proteins”...

Holland Lab receives AFOSR Grant to investigate “The Molecular Mechanisms Responsible for the Assembly of Spider Silk Fibers”...

Congratulations to Geri Polido who has completed her Master’s of Chemistry from SDSU. Her thesis, titled, “Investigation the Interactions Between Spider Venom Toxins and Lipid Bilayers” is pending publication....

Congratulations to high school students Jason Provol and Matt Bronars for their poster presentation “Metabalomic Analysis as a Method for Breast Cancer Diagnosis”, presented at the San Diego State Science Fair. They won top awards and the opportunity to represent San Diego at the Intel International High School Science Fair hosted in LA in July....

Mahsa Pahlavanwill be presenting a poster titled, “Synthesis and Structural Characterization of Spider Silk Mini Spidroin Peptide Mimics”...

David Onofrei will be presenting a poster titled “Probing Silk Protein Oligomeric Assemblies in Spider Silk with NMR Diffusion Measurements and Cryo-EM” at the CSUPERB Biotechnology Symposium on Jan 5th....

Dr. Holland will give a talk on “Molecular Mechanics of Spider Silk Assembly” as part of the National Academy of Sciences Kavli Frontiers of Science program in Malang, Indonesia. For more info visit: http://newscenter.sdsu.edu/sdsu_newscenter/news_story.aspx?sid=76251 https://vimeo.com/179396251...

The Holland lab will be presenting at the ACS Conference in San Diego. Dr. Holland’s Talk is titled “Molecular Mechanisms of Peptide and Protein Binding at Nanostructured Interfaces.” Haley Swanson’s Poster is titled “Elucidating the Structure & Assembly of Amino Acids on Silica Nanoparticles.” David Onofrei will be presenting a poster titled, “Investigating the unique structure and physical properties of spider prey wrap silk with electron microscopy and solid-state NMR....

Holland Lab receives SDSU University Grants Program (UGP) Award to investigate “Aciniform Spider Silk as a Novel Biomedical Suture Material.”...

Holland Lab receives second SDSU Presidents Leadership Fund Award to study “Structure of Biomolecules at Nanoparticle Interfaces”...

Congrats to Geri Polido and David Onofrei who will be presenting research posters at the Califonia State University Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology (CSUPERB) Symposium. Geri’s poster is titled “Investigating the Interaction of GsMTx-4 with Lipid Bilayers Using 31P Solid-state NMR, Transmission Electron Microscopy and Thermal Analysis” David’s Poster is titled “Structural Analysis and Characterization of Glandular Spider Silk Proteins.”...

Sponsored by the American Chemical Society and many similar organizations of nations in the Pacific, the 2015 International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies (Pacifichem) occurs every five years. Dr. Holland will be presenting his research on biomaterials at this conference in Honolulu, Hawaii titled, “Monitoring Spider Silk Assembly in vitro with NMR”....

Holland Lab receives DOD-AFOSR Grant to investigate “Spider’s Silk: From Protein-rich Gland Fluids to Diverse Biopolymer Fibers”...

Congratulations to Haley Swanson who will be presenting her research poster, titled “Structural Elucidation of the Nano-Bio Interface: Histidine on Fumed Silica Nanoparticles”, at the American Chemical Society’s Western Regional Conference at CSU San Marcos. Dr. Holland will be talking on “Molecular mechanisms of biomolecule binding at nanostructured interfaces” at the ACS Regional Conference...

Greg Holland receives Grants and Research Enterprise Writing (GREW) Fellowship...

Holland Lab receives SDSU President’s Leadership Fund (PLF) Award to study “Molecular Structure of Spider Venom Neurotoxins and Their Interaction with the Lipid Bilayer”...

Helping to spur interest in STEM fields early in life is an important part of our mission as researchers. In March, Dr. Holland gave a presenation at Gage Elementary in San Diego where students had the chance to see first-hand what research entails. Naturally, students were very excited by spiders shown during the presentation....

The Holland group won travel awards to visit Arizona State University in late March. Dr. Holland receives CSUPERB Travel Award to visit ASU and collect solid-state NMR data for Holland Lab projects. Geri, David and Haley all receive SDSU Graduate Student Travel Awards to visit ASU and collect solid-state NMR data for spider silk, spider venom neurotoxin and nanomaterial projects. March 2015. The research conducted there will help advance all the current research projects on silica nanoparticle...

Greg receives American Chemical Society (ACS) Reviewer award for 2015. This is the second year in a row Greg received this award....