Robert Holt

Dr. Holt has over 200 publications, approximately 118,412 citations, and an H-index of 110. Dr. Holt has been listed in the top 1 per cent of Web of Science cited researchers by Clarivate Analytics in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Dr. Holt obtained his science undergraduate degree from the University of British Columbia and his PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Alberta. In 1998, after a short postdoctoral fellowship in Molecular Evolution at the State University of New York, Dr. Holt joined Celera Genomics in Rockville, Maryland where he served as the Scientific Operations Manager for initial sequencing of the human genome. Since 2003 Dr. Holt has been a scientist at Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre located at the BC Cancer Research Institute, where he is also Scientific Co-Director of the BC Cancer Immunotherapy Program.

Dr. Holt’s work is focused on the structural diversity of T cell and B cell receptors which enable our bodies to discriminate our own healthy cells from cells that are mutated or infected by a pathogen. His group is focused on exploiting our knowledge of T cell and B cell receptors to genetically engineer immune cells to treat cancer. 

Another branch of Dr. Holt’s work concerns the relationship between pathogens and cancer; their work in colorectal carcinomas revealed a strong link between colorectal carcinoma and infection with the bacteria Fusobacterium nucleatum, and his lab is currently working on developing a vaccine against this pathogen.