Joseph Holden, MD, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Utah School of Medicine and an attending physician in Surgical Pathology at University Health Care. He serves on the Clinical Cancer Investigations Committee and the Tissue Access Committee at Huntsman Cancer Institute. Holden is also on the Executive Committee of ARUP Laboratories at the University of Utah.

Holden’s research aims to understand the role that DNA topoisomerases, enzymes that alter the coiling of double-stranded DNA, play in mediating anti-cancer drug sensitivity or resistance in human tumors. He has developed ways to measure the amount of topoisomerase in human cancers and determine whether these enzymes are predictive indicators of anti-cancer drug sensitivity. His other area of research is involved in detecting tyrosine kinase-activating mutations in human cancers. The presence or absence of these mutations in human malignancies may indicate patient response to tyrosine kinase-directed anti-tumor drugs.

Holden received his PhD in biochemistry from Duke University and his MD from the University of Michigan, followed by a residency and chief residency at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Holden has published extensively and serves as a reviewer for a number of scientific journals, including Biochemistry, Cancer, Cancer Research, and the International Journal of Cancer.