Jimmy Holder MD, PhD
Jimmy Holder MD, PhD began his training at the Johns Hopkins University, where he obtained his bachelor’s degree in biology. While at Johns Hopkins, he was awarded the Provost’s Award for Research and Excellence.
After graduating from Hopkins, he was accepted into the University of Texas Southwestern’s MD/ PhD graduate program. Under the guidance of scientific mentor, Dr. Andrew Zinn, Dr. Holder honed his skills in molecular biology and cell culture and was introduced to the techniques of mouse modeling in human disease. During his time as a graduate student, he identified a novel obesity gene, SIM 1, in a child that had early-onset, profound obesity. By utilizing a mouse model, he was able to demonstrate that over-expression of SIMl protects against diet-induced obesity via gene-regulated actions upon the central melanocortin system. The initial results of his findings were published in Human Molecular Genetics with his co-author and mentor, Dr. Zinn.
Following graduation from UT Southwestern, Dr. Holder pursued a post-doctoral fellowship in neurogenetics at the University of California, San Francisco. Under the mentorship of Dr. Louis Ptacek, Dr. Holder enhanced his knowledge analyzing rodent behaviors to model human neurologic diseases. He accomplished this by performing research relating to the role of a putative circadian rhythm gene in sleep homeostatsis within the mouse model. The results of his study yielded a publication in Science in 2009. Dr. Holder successfully completed his post-doctoral training in 2007; yet, this training at UCSF left him with a recognized need for hands-on clinical training in attempts to inform and guide his future research endeavors.
From 2007 to 2012, Dr. Holder trained as a child neurology resident at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. With this training, Dr. Holder gained a deeper appreciation and understanding for the breadth of neurologic disease in children. His ABPN Certification in Neurology/Child Neurology was conferred in 2013.
During his time in residency training, Dr. Holder first encountered a child with an autism spectrum disorder, known as Phelan McDermid syndrome. Caused by a loss of function mutation in the SHANK3 gene, this clinical entity enthralled Dr. Holder, leading him to question the underlying neuronal and circuitry mechanisms of neurodevelopmental disorders through the detailed study of the SHANK3 gene.
Under the guidance of mentor, Dr. Huda Zoghbi, Dr. Holder discovered that mice that over express SHANK3 have behavioral abnormalities in addition to epilepsy, the results of which were published in Nature in 2013.
After completing his residency, Dr. Holder opened up the Holder Lab in the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, and Dr. Holder has established a SHANKopathy clinic at Texas Children’s Hospital in order to provide care for children demonstrating both loss and gain of function mutations within this gene.
