Bio

B.S. ​The Johns Hopkins University, 1989​Ph.D. University of California San Diego, 1996​M.D., University of California San Diego, 1998Postdoctoral Fellow, Cardiology, University of Freiburg (Germany), 1995-1996 and Developmental Biology and Anatomy, University of South Carolina, 1998-1999

"We study how the heart responds to disease and changes in mechanical loading, then use this understanding to develop new treatments for heart disease."

Research Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Jeff Holmes's lab studies the interactions between mechanics, function, and growth and remodeling in the heart, using a combination of computational and experimental models. His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the American Heart Association, the Whitaker Foundation, the Coulter Foundation, and the Hartwell Foundation.He obtained his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University in 1989, his Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego in 1995, and his M.D. from the University of California, San Diego in 1998. His first faculty position was at Columbia University, where he helped found and build a new Biomedical Engineering department from 1999 to 2007. In 2007, Dr. Holmes moved to the University of Virginia. In 2020, Dr. Holmes left UVA to becme the Dean of Engineering at the University of Alabama Birmingham. Among Dr. Holmes' lasting legacies at the University of Virginia is the establishment and foundational leadership of the Center for Engineering in Medicine. The center’s mission is to create the nation’s best ecosystem for generating, developing and translating innovative ideas at the engineering-medicine interface to improve prevention, diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of disease.

Research Interests

  • Biomechanics/Injury Biomechanics or Biomechanics and Mechanobiology
  • Computational Systems Biology
  • Cardiovascular Engineering

In the News

Selected Publications

  • Emergence of collagen orientation heterogeneity in healing infarcts and an agent-based model. Biophys J, 110(10):2266-2277, May 2016. PMCID: in progress. ABS Richardson WJ, Holmes JW.
  • Physiological implications of myocardial scar structure. Comprehensive Physiology, 5(4):1877-1909, Sep 2015. PMCID: PMC4727398 ABS Richardson WJ, Clarke SA, Quinn TA, Holmes JW.
  • Changes in global and regional mechanics due to atrial fibrillation: insights from a coupled finite-element and circulation model. Ann Biomed Eng, 43(7):1600-1613, Jul 2015. PMCID: PMC4497915 ABS Moyer C, Norton PT, Ferguson JD, Holmes JW.
  • Anisotropic reinforcement of acute anteroapical infarcts improves pump function, Circ Heart Fail, 5:515-522, Jul 2012. PMCID: PMC3412161 ABS Fomovsky GM, Clark SA, Parker KM, Ailawadi G, Holmes JW.
  • Regional mechanics determine collagen fiber structure in healing myocardial infarcts. J Mol Cell Cardiol, 52:1083-1090, May 2012. PMCID: PMC3328210 ABS Fomovsky GM, Rouillard AD, Holmes JW.
  • Contribution of extracellular matrix to the mechanical properties of the heart. J Mol Cell Cardiol 48:490-496, Mar 2010. PMCID: PMC2823835 ABS Fomovsky GM, Thomopoulos S, Holmes JW.
  • The development of structural and mechanical anisotropy in fibroblast populated collagen gels. J Biomech Eng 127(5):742-750, Oct 2005. Thomopoulos S, Fomovsky GM, Holmes JW.
  • Structure and mechanics of healing myocardial infarcts. Annu Rev Biomed Eng 7:223-253, 2005. Holmes JW, Borg TK, Covell JW.