Rate My Professor Mandë Holford

Mandë Holford is Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Curator in Malacology in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. She earned her PhD from The Rockefeller University and is an alum of The City University of New York. Prior to joining Harvard in July 2025, she served as Professor in Chemistry at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center, with scientific appointments at The American Museum of Natural History and Weill Cornell Medical College. Her career encompasses research, education, and science diplomacy, highlighted by co-founding Killer Snails, LLC, an award-winning EdTech company that develops games to advance K-12 scientific learning.

Holford's research investigates venoms and venomous animals as drivers of molecular evolution and sources of medicinal innovation, with a focus on marine mollusks including snails, squids, octopuses, and cuttlefish. Her lab traces venom evolution to discover peptide natural products with therapeutic potential, studies rapidly evolving genes using venoms, and develops genetically manipulable invertebrate venom gland model systems to explore gene expression and physiological function. This work integrates marine biodiversity knowledge for human and planetary health. Key publications include "Venoms to the rescue" (Science, 2018), "Large-scale species delimitation method for hyperdiverse groups" (2012), "A Proposed Unified, Scalable Platform for Integrative Research on Venomous Species" (GigaScience, 2025), "Targeting Dysregulated Ion Channels in Liver Tumors with Venom Peptides" (Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, 2023), and "Phylogenomics of Neogastropoda: the backbone hidden in the bush" (Systematic Biology, 2024). She has received the NIH Pioneer Award, NSF CAREER Award, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship, World Economic Forum Champion Young Scientist award, and was elected AAAS Fellow in 2025, among others including the Allen Institute Distinguished Investigator Award and WINGS Women of Discovery Fellowship. Holford holds memberships in the National Academies Roundtable on Science Diplomacy and the Council of Foreign Relations.