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Professor Laurens Holmes, Jr

Professor Laurens Holmes, Jr

Clinical & Translational Science, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA

Laurens (Larry) Holmes, Jr. is an immunologist and infectious disease specialist, and obtained his doctoral degree in cancer epidemiology and biostatistics from the University of Texas, Health Sciences Center at Houston. He is a Principal Research Scientist at the Nemours Office of Health Equity & Inclusion, Newark, where he directs Pediatric Health Disparities Science research, training and education. He is also a professor of molecular epidemiology & clinical trials at the Biological Sciences Department at the University of Delaware, Newark, DE (USA). 

His research interests include immunologic surveillance of cancer, health disparities in major adult and pediatric malignancies and bio-molecular basis of health disparities in pediatric morbidity and mortality. Whereas differences in pediatric health outcomes are driven by variances in social determinants of health such as socioeconomic status, population differences at bio-molecular level also predispose to health disparities in childhood morbidity and mortality. Dr. Holmes is a pioneer of ecologic modelling in understanding complex causal models of pediatric diseases and health including biomarkers of susceptibility, risk, severity and prognosis identification and characterization at population level.  He is a founding member of the North American Pediatric Health Equity Collaborative (NAPHEC).

Professor Holmes is also a major proponent of global epigenomic medicine and public health, which implies the gene and environment interaction in disease etiology, prognosis and outcomes, namely, survival and mortality. With this trajectory, implying patient/subpopulations as the center of care and equitable outcomes, the scientific medical and public health communities require the application of aberrant epigenomic modulations as molecular sequencing via DNA methylation in induction therapy, prior to the standard of care, especially in pediatric malignant neoplasm, diabetes, CVDs, preterm birth, perinatal and infant mortality.

Updated 22 September 2023