Bruce A. Holm, PhD, Senior Vice Provost, Dies at Age 52

Holm’s career was marked by numerous achievements both in his administrative endeavors at UB and in translational research that moved from the lab bench to the bedside in the form of a life-saving drug for premature infants that he co-developed with colleagues.

A UB faculty member since 1989, Holm was named SUNY Distinguished Professor, the SUNY system’s highest rank, in the Departments of Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Pharmacology and Toxicology in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

He served most recently as senior vice provost in the Office of the Vice President for Research.

Throughout the university and the Western New York research community, Holm was widely appreciated for his remarkable ability to successfully navigate the widely divergent realms of scientific research, business and federal funding.

UB provost and executive vice president for academic affairs Satish Tripathi, PhD, said Holm was a quintessential “scholar-entrepreneur.”

“Bruce was the exemplification of researcher, educator, collaborator and entrepreneur. As the architect of the contemporary manifestation of UB’s New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, Bruce artfully combined his unique skills with his signature diplomatic manner to create a true center of excellence for research and innovation,” Tripathi said. “As a world renowned scientist and entrepreneur, Bruce was known to many students and young faculty as the consummate mentor helping to support great scientific achievement. Bruce will be dearly missed by his friends and colleagues. He will be remembered as a great man of science and a true gentleman whose life’s work will be evident for generations to come.”

UB President John B. Simpson remembered Holm for his many contributions to the local life-sciences community.

“Bruce was at the heart of so much of what we have been working to achieve through UB 2020, and especially of the downtown academic health center that is a core part of that vision,” Simpson said. “It was my great joy and privilege to know him and learn from him over the years as a colleague, trusted advisor and friend. This is a tremendous loss for our UB family, but his achievements will have a lasting impact on the future of this university and the life-sciences community it is building in Western New York.”

Holm was appointed executive director of UB’s New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences in 2004, and was an integral part of the Buffalo region’s development of a biotechnology industry leveraging UB life sciences research and innovations in partnership with Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute. He worked to attract high-profile researchers and companies from all over the world to UB and to Western New York.

In addition, Holm previously served as UB’s chief administrator for the Center for Advanced Biomedical and Bioengineering Technologies (CAT) in the Center of Excellence.

Holm first came to UB’s School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences as a Fellow in Perinatology in the Department of Gynecology-Obstetrics in 1987. He joined the full-time faculty in 1989, rising rapidly to professor in 1996. He was named associate dean for research and graduate studies in 1994. In 2000, he became senior associate vice provost for health affairs and in 2002, he was appointed senior vice provost.

Holm was a leading researcher in the biology of lung development and therapeutics for acute lung disease. As a graduate student at the University of Rochester, where he earned his doctorate, he began collaborating with UB faculty to conduct groundbreaking studies on the mechanisms of acute oxygen toxicity and to explore therapeutic strategies to mitigate the damage.

He was a sought-after evaluator of research by major scientific journals and by multiple governmental and not-for-profit research granting organizations.

Holm was a world leader in defining the role of lung surfactant in lung diseases in patients of all ages and in devising therapies for these diseases. He conducted research on surfactant replacement therapy, neonatal respiratory distress syndrome and acute respiratory distress syndrome, molecular and genetic therapeutics in congenital anomalies and molecular therapies in acute lung injury.

His research with UB colleague Edmund Egan, MD, on therapeutics for acute lung disease secured two patents that resulted in the development of Infasurf®, a lung surfactant that has helped lower the mortality rate for premature newborns.

In 2008, Holm and Egan were awarded the UB Faculty Entrepreneur Award for commercializing Infasurf, which is used to treat infants nationwide. In addition, in 2004, they were named to the Pioneers of Science by Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute for their development of Infasurf.

Currently, their Buffalo-based company, ONY Inc., housed in UB’s Technology Incubator, is moving forward with a new surfactant, which could represent a significant advance for adults who suffer from acute and dangerous episodes of respiratory failure.

Robert Genco, DDS, PhD, UB vice provost and a long-time associate of Holm’s said, “Dr. Holm was the epitome of the academic triple threat: a brilliant scientist, a gifted teacher and among the best academic leaders our university has ever had. His untimely death is not only a tragedy for his family and all of us who were his colleagues, it is a great loss for the University at Buffalo and the region.”

In 2009, Holm’s successes were recognized by the Genesee County Economic Development Center, which dedicated the Dr. Bruce A. Holm Upstate MedTech Centre in the Upstate MedTech Park in Batavia. Holm is a former Batavia resident. The MedTech Centre is a 43,000-square-foot facility housing the offices of the Economic Development Center, Genesee Community College’s nursing program and United Memorial Center’s physical and occupational therapy programs, as well as space to support emerging life sciences companies with ties to UB and the University of Rochester.

Holm received a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Iowa in 1981. He then served as an NIH predoctoral fellow in Radiation Biology, Biophysics and Pulmonary Medicine, and in 1987 received his master’s degree and doctorate in toxicology and pulmonary medicine from the University of Rochester School of Medicine. He subsequently completed a fellowship in perinatology at the Children’s Hospital of Buffalo.

Throughout his 24 years at UB, he maintained an active research program; he published more than 200 scientific papers, as well as book chapters and abstracts on such topics as the biology of lung development, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, Respiratory Distress Syndrome and molecular therapeutics in acute lung injury. He attracted grant awards that totaled more than $75 million.

Holm was the recipient of numerous research awards, including the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Research and Science, Technology/Discovery Award from the Health Care Industries Association and a Research Career Development Award from the NIH’s Heart Lung and Blood Institute.

He has served as a member of the editorial board of the American Journal of Physiology: Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology and as a guest editor of Clinics in Perinatology. He received a Research Career Award from the Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health in 1991, and has been principal investigator on numerous NIH, DOD, NASA, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Markey Trust funded projects.

Holm was born in Des Moines, Iowa, to Howard and Bernita Holm. He is survived by his parents and his sons, Alexander and Christopher.