Dr. Stephen P. Holly, PhD.

Biography

Dr. Stephen P. Holly is an Associate Professor of Biochemistry in the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at Campbell University. He teaches in the graduate, pharmacy and undergraduate programs in the College as well as in the School of Osteopathic Medicine. He also serves as the Chair of the Institutional Review Board. Dr. Holly earned his doctorate degree from Washington University in St. Louis in yeast genetics before studying cell adhesion, signaling, hemostasis and thrombosis as a postdoctoral fellow and junior faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Holly’s research interests include the identification and analysis of novel signaling molecules that positively regulate aggregation and secretion in platelets. In collaboration with others, he discovered an enzyme known as arylacetamide deacetylase-like 1 (AADACL1) in platelets and megakaryocytes using a combination of library screening and innovative chemoproteomic profiling. AADACL1 impacts lipid metabolism in the context of normal platelet-dependent blood clotting (hemostasis) and potentially during pathological aggregate formation (thrombosis). He is currently evaluating physiological role(s) of AADACL1 in rat models of thrombosis and hemostasis with the long-term goal of discovering novel anti-platelet therapeutics that minimize or prevent thrombotic disease.