Holland was a doctoral student at the Laboratory of Viral Oncology and Proteomics Research,
Keck School of Medicine, where he was supervised by Professor Suraiya Rasheed.
[6] In March 2013, Holland and co-authors published a paper in
PLoS One regarding
microRNA in HIV
genomes,
[7] titled "Identification of Human MicroRNA-Like Sequences Embedded within the Protein-Encoding Genes of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus".
[8] The original
academic paper describes the use of
computational molecular biological (
in silico) approaches to identify
microRNA-like sequences in HIV. These sequences are suggested to have evolved to self-regulate survival of the virus in the host by evading its immune responses and thus influence the persistence, replication, and pathogenicity of HIV. Holland was awarded his Ph.D. degree in molecular biology during the USC Commencement on May 12, 2017.
[9][10]
