Wikipedia

Edward C. Holmes

Edward Charles Holmes FRS FAA[6] (born 26 February 1965)[2] is a British evolutionary biologist and virologist. Since 2012, he has been a fellow of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) in Australia and professor at the University of Sydney.[4][7][8] He was an honorary visiting professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, China, from 2019-2021.[9]

Edward C. Holmes
FRS FAA
Holmes in 2017
Born (1965-02-26) 26 February 1965 (age 59)[2]
Alma mater
Known forMolecular Evolution: A Phylogenetic Approach[5]
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
ThesisPattern and Process in the Molecular Evolution of the Order Primates (1990)
Academic advisorsAdrian Friday[2]
Websitesydney.edu.au/science/people/edward.holmes.php

Education

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Holmes was educated at University College London where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Anthropology in 1986.[2] He then moved to the University of Cambridge where he was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Zoology in 1990[10][2] for research on molecular evolution in primates supervised by Adrian Friday.[2]

Research and career

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Holmes has used genomic and phylogenetic approaches to reveal the major mechanisms of virus evolution and determined the genetic and epidemiological processes that explain how viruses jump species boundaries and spread in new hosts.[6] His work has revealed the origin, evolution and molecular epidemiology of important human pathogens including Hepatitis C,[11][12] influenza,[13][14] HIV[15] and dengue,[16] and enabled more accurate assessments of what types of virus are most likely to emerge in human populations and whether they will evolve human-to-human transmission.[6] His recent research has provided fundamental insights into the breadth and biodiversity of the viral world.[6]

Holmes wrote The Evolution and Emergence of RNA Viruses[17] part of the Oxford Series in Ecology and Evolution edited by Paul H. Harvey and Robert M. May. He also co-authored the textbook Molecular Evolution: A Phylogenetic Approach with Rod Page.[5] Since 1994 he has supervised 31 graduate students.[2]

SARS-CoV-2

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Holmes co-authored the publication of the genome sequence of SARS-CoV-2[18][19] and the early descriptions of the disease, working with Zhang Yongzhen from Fudan University to share the first sequencing data from the virus.[20] Holmes has figured prominently in commentary surrounding its origins. In March 2020, he co-authored a letter titled The proximal origins of SARS-CoV-2, published in Nature Medicine,[21] which examined the mutations in the receptor-binding domain and furin cleavage site, and concluded that the virus sequence did not appear to be engineered.[22][23] He co-authored a more-detailed review article in Cell.[24]

The University of Sydney published a statement by Holmes in April that stated, "There is no evidence that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 in humans, originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China", and that all evidence points towards its origin in an animal species.[25] These views were reported in the Financial Times in May 2020.[26]

Institutional affiliations

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Before moving to Sydney in 2012, Holmes held academic appointments at various universities in the UK and USA including:

1990–1991 University of California, Davis,[2] postdoctoral researcher supervised by Charles H. Langley.
1991–1993 University of Edinburgh,[2] postdoc funded by the UK Medical Research Council (MRC).[2][11]
1993–2004 University of Oxford[2] where he was a Fellow of New College, Oxford and St Catherine's College, Oxford
2005–2012 Pennsylvania State University, Full Professor of Biology[2]

His research has been funded by the Royal Society,[6] the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Canadian Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Rhodes Trust, Wellcome Trust, United States National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), Australian Research Council, and Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).[2][1][27]

Awards and honours

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Holmes was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA) in 2015 and a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2017.[6] In 2017 he was awarded an Australian Laureate Fellowship.[3] He was awarded the Scientific Medal, Zoological Society of London in 2003.[2] In October 2020 Holmes was named NSW Scientist of the Year.[28] In January 2021 he was jointly awarded the General Symbiont prize as an exemplar in the practice of data sharing at the Research Symbiont Awards alongside Zhang Yongzhen for sharing the first SARSCov2 genome.[29] In November 2021 he was awarded the Prime Minister's Prize for Science.[30] He was the recipient of the 2024 Croonian Medal and Lecture, awarded by the Royal Society.[31]

Personal life

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Holmes lists his recreations as Whale Beach, New South Wales, electric guitars, and Aston Villa Football Club.[32]

See also

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References

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Scholia has an author profile for Edward C. Holmes.
  1. ^ a b c d Edward C. Holmes ORCID 0000-0001-9596-3552
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Holmes, Eddie (2020). "Edward C. Holmes – Curriculum Vitae". profiles.sydney.edu.au. University of Sydney. Archived from the original on 8 August 2017.
  3. ^ a b "Fellowships and training centres accelerate research capacity". University of Sydney. 5 June 2017. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  4. ^ a b Edward C. Holmes publications indexed by Google Scholar  
  5. ^ a b Page, Roderic D. M.; Holmes, Edward C. (1998). Molecular evolution : a phylogenetic approach. Oxford: Blackwell Science. ISBN 9780865428898. OCLC 47011609.
  6. ^ a b c d e f "Edward Holmes". RoyalSociety.org. London: Royal Society. 2017. Archived from the original on 11 May 2017. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:

    "All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License." --"Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies". Archived from the original on 11 November 2016. Retrieved 9 March 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  7. ^ Edward C. Holmes publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  8. ^ Edward C. Holmes publications from Europe PubMed Central
  9. ^ "Staff Profile". The University of Sydney. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
  10. ^ Holmes, Edward Charles (1989). Pattern and process in the molecular evolution of the order primates (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. OCLC 53489363. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.317751 ProQuest 1771542055.
  11. ^ a b Simmonds, Peter; Alberti, Alfredo; Alter, Harvey J.; Bonino, Ferruccio; Bradley, Daniel W.; Brechot, Christian; Brouwer, Johannes T.; Chan, Shiu-Wan; Chayama, Kazuaki; Chen, Ding-Shinn; Choo, Qui-Lim; Colombo, Massimo; Cuypers, H. Theo M.; Date, Takayasu; Dusheiko, Geoff M.; Esteban, Juan I.; Fay, Oscar; Hadziyannis, S. J.; Han, Jang; Hatzakis, Angelos; Holmes, Eddie C.; Hotta, Hak; Houghton, Michael; Irvine, Bruce; Kohara, Michinori; Kolberg, Janice A.; Kuo, George; Lau, Johnson Y. N.; Lelie, P. Nico; Maertens, Geert; McOmish, Fiona; Miyamura, Tatsuo; Mizokami, Masashi; Nomoto, Akio; Prince, Alfred M.; Reesink, Henk W.; Rice, Charlie; Roggendorf, Michael; Schalm, Solko W.; Shikata, Toshio; Shimotohno, Kunitada; Stuyver, Lieven; Trépo, Christian; Weiner, Amy; Yap, Peng L.; Urdea, Mickey S. (1994). "A proposed system for the nomenclature of hepatitis C viral genotypes". Hepatology. 19 (5): 1321–1324. doi:10.1002/hep.1840190538. ISSN 0270-9139. PMID 8175159. S2CID 1573464.
  12. ^ Simmonds, P.; Irvine, B.; Yap, P. L.; Kolberg, J.; Chan, S.-W.; Cha, T.-A.; Beall, E.; Urdea, M. S.; Holmes, E. C.; McOmish, F. (1993). "Classification of hepatitis C virus into six major genotypes and a series of subtypes by phylogenetic analysis of the NS-5 region". Journal of General Virology. 74 (11): 2391–2399. doi:10.1099/0022-1317-74-11-2391. hdl:20.500.11820/235f2867-10dc-4b3d-822a-45e7b02d7375. ISSN 0022-1317. PMID 8245854.
  13. ^ Subbarao, Kanta; Tong, Suxiang; Zhu, Xueyong; Li, Yan; Shi, Mang; Zhang, Jing; Bourgeois, Melissa; Yang, Hua; Chen, Xianfeng; Recuenco, Sergio; Gomez, Jorge; Chen, Li-Mei; Johnson, Adam; Tao, Ying; Dreyfus, Cyrille; Yu, Wenli; McBride, Ryan; Carney, Paul J.; Gilbert, Amy T.; Chang, Jessie; Guo, Zhu; Davis, Charles T.; Paulson, James C.; Stevens, James; Rupprecht, Charles E.; Holmes, Edward C.; Wilson, Ian A.; Donis, Ruben O. (2013). "New World Bats Harbor Diverse Influenza A Viruses". PLOS Pathogens. 9 (10): e1003657. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1003657. ISSN 1553-7374. PMC 3794996. PMID 24130481.  
  14. ^ Rambaut, Andrew; Pybus, Oliver G.; Nelson, Martha I.; Viboud, Cecile; Taubenberger, Jeffery K.; Holmes, Edward C. (2008). "The genomic and epidemiological dynamics of human influenza A virus". Nature. 453 (7195): 615–619. Bibcode:2008Natur.453..615R. doi:10.1038/nature06945. PMC 2441973. PMID 18418375.  
  15. ^ Leslie, A J; Pfafferott, K J; Chetty, P; Draenert, R; Addo, M M; Feeney, M; Tang, Y; Holmes, E C; Allen, T; Prado, J G; Altfeld, M; Brander, C; Dixon, C; Ramduth, D; Jeena, P; Thomas, S A; John, A St; Roach, T A; Kupfer, B; Luzzi, G; Edwards, A; Taylor, G; Lyall, H; Tudor-Williams, G; Novelli, V; Martinez-Picado, J; Kiepiela, P; Walker, B D; Goulder, P J R (2004). "HIV evolution: CTL escape mutation and reversion after transmission". Nature Medicine. 10 (3): 282–289. doi:10.1038/nm992. ISSN 1078-8956. PMID 14770175. S2CID 28756735.
  16. ^ Holmes, E; Twiddy, S (2003). "The origin, emergence and evolutionary genetics of dengue virus". Infection, Genetics and Evolution. 3 (1): 19–28. doi:10.1016/S1567-1348(03)00004-2. ISSN 1567-1348. PMID 12797969. (subscription required)
  17. ^ Holmes, Edward C. (2009). The Evolution and Emergence of RNA Viruses. Oxford Series in Ecology and Evolution. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199211135.
  18. ^ Lu, Roujian; Zhao, Xiang; Li, Juan; Niu, Peihua; Yang, Bo; Wu, Honglong; Wang, Wenling; Song, Hao; Huang, Baoying; Zhu, Na; Bi, Yuhai; Ma, Xuejun; Zhan, Faxian; Wang, Liang; Hu, Tao; Zhou, Hong; Hu, Zhenhong; Zhou, Weimin; Zhao, Li; Chen, Jing; Meng, Yao; Wang, Ji; Lin, Yang; Yuan, Jianying; Xie, Zhihao; Ma, Jinmin; Liu, William J; Wang, Dayan; Xu, Wenbo; Holmes, Edward C; Gao, George F; Wu, Guizhen; Chen, Weijun; Shi, Weifeng; Tan, Wenjie (2020). "Genomic characterisation and epidemiology of 2019 novel coronavirus: implications for virus origins and receptor binding". The Lancet. 395 (10224): 565–574. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30251-8. ISSN 0140-6736. PMC 7159086. PMID 32007145.
  19. ^ Zhang, Yong-Zhen; Holmes, Edward C. (2020). "A Genomic Perspective on the Origin and Emergence of SARS-CoV-2". Cell. 181 (2): 223–227. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2020.03.035. ISSN 0092-8674. PMC 7194821. PMID 32220310.
  20. ^ Wu, Fan; Zhao, Su; Yu, Bin; Chen, Yan-Mei; Wang, Wen; Song, Zhi-Gang; Hu, Yi; Tao, Zhao-Wu; Tian, Jun-Hua; Pei, Yuan-Yuan; Yuan, Ming-Li; Zhang, Yu-Ling; Dai, Fa-Hui; Liu, Yi; Wang, Qi-Min; Zheng, Jiao-Jiao; Xu, Lin; Holmes, Edward C.; Zhang, Yong-Zhen (2020). "A new coronavirus associated with human respiratory disease in China". Nature. 579 (7798): 265–269. Bibcode:2020Natur.579..265W. doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2008-3. ISSN 0028-0836. PMC 7094943. PMID 32015508.
  21. ^ Andersen, Kristian G.; Rambaut, Andrew; Lipkin, W. Ian; Holmes, Edward C.; Garry, Robert F. (2020). "The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2". Nature Medicine. 26 (4): 450–452. doi:10.1038/s41591-020-0820-9. ISSN 1078-8956. PMC 7095063. PMID 32284615.
  22. ^ Spinney, Laura (28 March 2020). "Is factory farming to blame for coronavirus?". the Guardian. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
  23. ^ Mannix, Liam (24 April 2020). "Coronavirus Australia: Scientists dispel theory COVID-19 escaped from lab". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
  24. ^ Holmes EC; et al. (16 September 2021). "The origins of SARS-CoV-2: A critical review". Cell. 184 (19): 4848–4856. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2021.08.017. PMC 8373617. PMID 34480864.
  25. ^ Holmes, Edward (16 April 2020). "Statement from Professor Edward Holmes on the SARS-CoV-2 virus: On the origins of the virus that causes COVID-19". The University of Sydney. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
  26. ^ Weinland, Don; Manson, Katrina (5 May 2020). "How a Wuhan lab became embroiled in a global coronavirus blame game". Financial Times. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
  27. ^ "Professor Holmes driven by the pursuit of scientific truth". The University of Sydney. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  28. ^ Aubusson, Kate (26 October 2020). "Virus rebel Professor Edward Holmes named NSW Scientist of the Year". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  29. ^ "The Research Symbiont Awards". ResearchSymbionts.org. 8 January 2021. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  30. ^ "Prime Minister's Prizes for Science 2021". Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources. 3 November 2021. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021. Retrieved 3 November 2021.
  31. ^ "Croonian Medal and Lecture winner 2024". 20 August 2023. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
  32. ^ Fallon, Bailey (2015). "Meet our Editors: An interview with Edward Holmes". blogs.royalsociety.org. Archived from the original on 19 November 2016.
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