Dr Chris Holland

BA, MSc, D.Phil

School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering

Senior Lecturer in Natural Materials

Chair of IOM3 Natural Materials Association

christopher.holland@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 5477

Sir Robert Hadfield Building

Full contact details

Dr Chris Holland
School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering
Sir Robert Hadfield Building
Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD

Profile

I enjoy undertaking original research into natural materials, in particular silk where I have pioneered the field of silk rheology (i.e. spinning) for the last 20 years. I leads the Natural Materials Group, which I grew whilst holding an EPSRC Early Career Fellowship and being principle coordinator of FLIPT, a large European consortium as part of a H2020 FET Open project.

I am currently Chair of the Silk 2025 Gordon Research Conference. For a decade I was an Associate Editor for ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering and also the Chair of the Natural Materials Association.

Previously I was at Oxford where I undertook his BA in Biological Sciences, MSc in Integrative Biosciences, D. Phil and later a Fellowship By Examination (a.k.a JRF) whilst working in the Oxford Silk Group.

Qualifications

2000-2003 BA(Hons) Biological Sciences, University of Oxford

2003-2004 MSc Integrative Biosciences, University of Oxford

2004-2008 D.Phil Silk Rheology, University of Oxford

2018 Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

2020 Fellow of the Institute of Materials Mining and Mineralogy

Research interests

My research uses tools developed for the physical sciences to better understand nature’s materials, from latex to collagen but with a focus on silk. By investigating unspun silk’s flow properties I have been able to gain unique insights into their biodiversity, structure and evolution. Additionally, this work has made important links between natural and industrial fibre processing which has led to a fundamentally new way of designing, testing and fabricating bio-inspired materials.

I have an H-impact of 36 with > 4,000 citations and ~17% of my >70 original articles are in field-leading journals (such as Nature Materials x1, Advanced Materials x3, Advanced Functional Materials x1, Nature Communications x4, Small Structures x1, Science Advances x1, Advanced Healthcare Materials x1, Materials Today Advances x1). Three of my outputs are ranked in the global top 5% of all academic publications (>24M articles) by Altmetric for wider impact (i.e. media citations). To date my associated grant portfolio has been in excess of £24M.

Publications

Journal articles

Moreno-Tortolero RO, Luo Y, Parmeggiani F, Skaer N, Walker R, Serpell LC, Holland C & Davis SA (2024) Molecular organization of fibroin heavy chain and mechanism of fibre formation in Bombyx mori. Communications Biology, 7(1). View this article in WRRO
Ledesma EB & Holland C (2024) Analysis, classification and identification of gastropod locomotive mucus by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Journal of Molluscan Studies, 90(1). View this article in WRRO
Wan Q, Farr NTH, Li P, Batey D, Rau C, Rodenburg J, Lu L, Laity PR, Xu Z, Holland C , Rodenburg C et al (2024) Carbon nanotubes facilitate silk hierarchical assembly by dry drawing. Small Structures. View this article in WRRO
Nohl JF, Farr NTH, Sun Y, Hughes GM, Stehling N, Zhang J, Longman F, Ives G, Pokorná Z, Mika F , Kumar V et al (2023) Insights into surface chemistry down to nanoscale: an accessible colour hyperspectral imaging approach for scanning electron microscopy. Materials Today Advances, 19. View this article in WRRO
Laity PR, Dunderdale G, Mykhaylyk OO & Holland C (2023) Flow-Induced Protein Chain Deformation, Segmental Orientation, and Phase Separation in Native Silk Feedstock.. Biomacromolecules.
Arakawa K, Kono N, Malay AD, Tateishi A, Ifuku N, Masunaga H, Sato R, Tsuchiya K, Ohtoshi R, Pedrazzoli D , Shinohara A et al (2022) 1000 spider silkomes: linking sequences to silk physical properties. Science Advances, 8(41).
Chatterley AS, Laity P, Holland C, Weidner T, Woutersen S & Giubertoni G (2022) Broadband multidimensional spectroscopy Identifies the amide II vibrations in silkworm films. Molecules, 27(19).
Arndt T, Jaudzems K, Shilkova O, Francis J, Johansson M, Laity PR, Sahin C, Chatterjee U, Kronqvist N, Barajas-Ledesma E , Kumar R et al (2022) Spidroin N-terminal domain forms amyloid-like fibril based hydrogels and provides a protein immobilization platform. Nature Communications, 13(1).
Chen Y-M, Zang L-S, Koc-Bilican B, Bilican I, Holland C, Cansaran-Duman D, Karaduman T, Çolak A, Bayır Y, Halici Z , Ozmen S et al (2022) Macroporous surgical mesh from a natural cocoon composite. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 10(18), 5728-5738.
White B, Kempka R, Laity P, Holland C, Six K, Trummer G, Buckley-Johnstone L & Lewis R (2022) Iron Oxide and Water Paste Rheology and Its Effect on Low Adhesion in the Wheel/Rail Interface. Tribology Letters, 70(1).
Laity PR & Holland C (2022) Seeking solvation: exploring the role of protein hydration in silk gelation. Molecules, 27(2).
Wan Q, Yang M, Hu J, Lei F, Shuai Y, Wang J, Holland C, Rodenburg C & Yang M (2021) Mesoscale structure development reveals when a silkworm silk is spun. Nature Communications, 12(1).
Young RJ, Holland C, Shao Z & Vollrath F (2021) Spinning conditions affect structure and properties of Nephila spider silk. MRS Bulletin, 46(10), 915-924.
Avella I, Barajas-Ledesma E, Casewell NR, Harrison RA, Rowley PD, Crittenden E, Wüster W, Castiglia R, Holland C & van der Meijden A (2021) Unexpected lack of specialisation in the flow properties of spitting cobra venom. Journal of Experimental Biology, 224(7). View this article in WRRO
Greco G, Mastellari V, Holland C & Pugno NM (2021) Comparing modern and classical perspectives on spider silks and webs. Perspectives on Science, 29(2), 133-156.
Schaefer C, Laity PR, Holland C & McLeish TCB (2021) Stretching of Bombyx mori silk protein in flow. Molecules, 26(6). View this article in WRRO
Arndt T, Laity PR, Johansson J, Holland C & Rising A (2021) Native-like flow properties of an artificial spider silk dope. ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, 7(2), 462-471.
Koeppel A, Stehling N, Rodenburg C & Holland C (2021) Spinning Beta Silks Requires Both pH Activation and Extensional Stress. Advanced Functional Materials.
Koeppel A, Laity PR & Holland C (2020) The influence of metal ions on native silk rheology. Acta Biomaterialia.
Fraternali F, Stehling N, Amendola A, Tiban Anrango BA, Holland C & Rodenburg C (2020) Tensegrity modelling and the high toughness of spider dragline silk. Nanomaterials, 10(8). View this article in WRRO
Greving I, Terry AE, Holland C, Boulet-Audet M, Grillo I, Vollrath F & Dicko C (2020) Structural diversity of native Major Ampullate, Minor Ampullate, Cylindriform, and Flagelliform silk proteins in solution. Biomacromolecules. View this article in WRRO
Schaefer C, Laity PR, Holland C & McLeish TCB (2020) Silk protein solution : a natural example of sticky reptation. Macromolecules, 53(7), 2669-2676. View this article in WRRO
Atkinson F, Evans R, Guest JE, Bavin EP, Cacador D, Holland C & Guest DJ (2020) Cyclical strain improves artificial equine tendon constructs in vitro. Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine. View this article in WRRO
Brif A, Laity P, Claeyssens F & Holland C (2020) Dynamic photo-cross-linking of native silk enables macroscale patterning at a microscale resolution. ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, 6(1), 705-714. View this article in WRRO
Postulkova H, Nedomova E, Hearnden V, Holland C & Vojtova L (2019) Hybrid hydrogels based on polysaccharide gum karaya, poly(vinyl alcohol) and silk fibroin. Materials Research Express, 6(3). View this article in WRRO
Stehling NA, Abrams KJ, Holland C & Rodenburg C (2019) Revealing spider silk’s 3D nanostructure through low temperature plasma etching and advanced low-voltage SEM. Frontiers in Materials, 5. View this article in WRRO
Holland C, Hawkins N, Frydrych M, Laity P, Porter D & Vollrath F (2018) Differential Scanning Calorimetry of Native Silk Feedstock. Macromolecular Bioscience. View this article in WRRO
Koeppel A, Laity PR & Holland C (2018) Extensional flow behaviour and spinnability of native silk.. Soft Matter. View this article in WRRO
Holland C, Numata K, Rnjak-Kovacina J & Seib FP (2018) The Biomedical Use of Silk: Past, Present, Future. Advanced Healthcare Materials. View this article in WRRO
Sparkes J & Holland C (2018) The Energy Requirements for Flow-Induced Solidification of Silk. Macromolecular Bioscience. View this article in WRRO
Laity PR, Baldwin E & Holland C (2018) Changes in Silk Feedstock Rheology during Cocoon Construction: The Role of Calcium and Potassium Ions.. Macromolecular Bioscience. View this article in WRRO
Stehling NA, Masters R, Zhou Y, O'Connell R, Holland C, Zhang H & Rodenburg C (2018) New perspectives on nano-engineering by secondary electron spectroscopy in the helium ion and scanning electron microscope. MRS Communications. View this article in WRRO
Shimanovich U, Pinotsi D, Shimanovich K, Yu N, Bolisetty S, Adamcik J, Mezzenga R, Charmet J, Vollrath F, Gazit E , Dobson CM et al (2018) Biophotonics of native silk fibrils. Macromolecular Bioscience, 18(4). View this article in WRRO
Sparkes J & Holland C (2018) The rheological properties of native sericin. Acta Biomaterialia, 69, 234-242. View this article in WRRO
Wan Q, Abrams K, Masters R, Talari , Rehman , Claeyssens , Holland C & Rodenburg C (2017) Mapping Nanostructural Variations in Silk by Secondary Electron Hyperspectral Imaging. Advanced Materials, 29(47). View this article in WRRO
Sparkes J & Holland C (2017) Analysis of the pressure requirements for silk spinning reveals a pultrusion dominated process. Nature Communications, 8(1). View this article in WRRO
Kwak HW, Ju JE, Shin M, Holland C & Lee KH (2017) Sericin Promotes Fibroin Silk I Stabilization Across a Phase-Separation. Biomacromolecules, 18(8), 2343-2349. View this article in WRRO
Shimanovich U, Ruggeri FS, De Genst E, Adamcik J, Barros TP, Porter D, Müller T, Mezzenga R, Dobson CM, Vollrath F , Holland C et al (2017) Silk micrococoons for protein stabilisation and molecular encapsulation.. Nature Communications, 8. View this article in WRRO
Koeppel A & Holland C (2017) Progress and Trends in Artificial Silk Spinning: A Systematic Review. ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, 3(3), 226-237. View this article in WRRO
Laity P & Holland C (2016) The Rheology behind Stress-Induced Solidification in Native Silk Feedstocks. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 17(12), 1812-1812. View this article in WRRO
Laity PR & Holland C (2016) Thermo-rheological behaviour of native silk feedstocks. European Polymer Journal. View this article in WRRO
Boulet-Audet M, Holland C, Gheysens T & Vollrath F (2016) Dry-Spun Silk Produces Native-Like Fibroin Solutions. Biomacromolecules, 17(10), 3198-3204. View this article in WRRO
Offord C, Vollrath F & Holland C (2016) Environmental effects on the construction and physical properties of Bombyx mori cocoons. Journal of Materials Science, 1-10. View this article in WRRO
Laity PR & Holland C (2016) Native Silk Feedstock as a Model Biopolymer: A Rheological Perspective.. Biomacromolecules. View this article in WRRO
Guan J, Wang Y, Mortimer B, Holland C, Shao Z, Porter D & Vollrath F (2016) Glass transitions in native silk fibres studied by dynamic mechanical thermal analysis.. Soft Matter, 12(27), 5926-5936. View this article in WRRO
Castro APG, Laity P, Shariatzadeh M, Wittkowske C, Holland C & Lacroix D (2016) Combined numerical and experimental biomechanical characterization of soft collagen hydrogel substrate. Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine, 27(4). View this article in WRRO
Burdick J, Holland C, Kaplan D & Radisic M (2016) ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering, Editorial—First Anniversary. ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, 2(2), 141-141.
Mortimer B, Holland C, Windmill JFC & Vollrath F (2015) Unpicking the signal thread of the sector web spider Zygiella x-notata. Journal of The Royal Society Interface, 12(113), 20150633-20150633. View this article in WRRO
Boulet-Audet M, Vollrath F & Holland C (2015) Identification and classification of silks using infrared spectroscopy. Journal of Experimental Biology, 218(19), 3138-3149. View this article in WRRO
Walker AA, Holland C & Sutherland TD (2015) More than one way to spin a crystallite: multiple trajectories through liquid crystallinity to solid silk. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 282(1809), 20150259-20150259. View this article in WRRO
Laity PR, Gilks SE & Holland C (2015) Rheological behaviour of native silk feedstocks. Polymer, 67, 28-39. View this article in WRRO
Mortimer B, Guan J, Holland C, Porter D & Vollrath F (2015) Linking naturally and unnaturally spun silks through the forced reeling of Bombyx mori. Acta Biomaterialia, 11, 247-255. View this article in WRRO
Burdick J, Holland C, Radisic M & Kaplan DL (2015) Welcome to ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering. ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, 1(1), 1-1.
Mortimer B, Gordon SD, Holland C, Siviour CR, Vollrath F & Windmill JFC (2014) The speed of sound in silk: linking material performance to biological function.. Adv Mater, 26(30), 5179-5183. View this article in WRRO
Bauer G, Friedrich C, Gillig C, Vollrath F, Speck T & Holland C (2014) Investigating the rheological properties of native plant latex. Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 11(90). View this article in WRRO
Vollrath F, Hawkins N, Porter D, Holland C & Boulet-Audet M (2014) Differential Scanning Fluorimetry provides high throughput data on silk protein transitions.. Sci Rep, 4, 5625. View this article in WRRO
Drodge DR, Mortimer B, Siviour CR & Holland C (2014) Hierarchical bionanomaterials under the hammer: High-rate response of silks. Conference Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Mechanics Series, 4, 75-77.
Holland C, Vollrath F & Gill HS (2014) Horses and cows might teach us about human knees. Naturwissenschaften, 1-4.
Boulet-Audet M, Terry AE, Vollrath F & Holland C (2014) 'Corrigendum to "Silk protein aggregation kinetics revealed by Rheo-IR" [Acta Biomater. 10 (2014) 776-784]' (DOI:10.1016/j.actbio.2013.10.032). Acta Biomaterialia.
Mortimer B, Holland C & Vollrath F (2013) Forced reeling of bombyx mori silk: Separating behavior and processing conditions. Biomacromolecules, 14(10), 3653-3659.
Boulet-Audet M, Terry AE, Vollrath F & Holland C (2013) Silk protein aggregation kinetics revealed by Rheo-IR. Acta Biomaterialia.
Vollrath F, Porter D & Holland C (2013) The science of silks. MRS Bulletin, 38(1), 73-80.
Mortimer B, Drodge DR, Dragnevski KI, Siviour CR & Holland C (2013) In situ tensile tests of single silk fibres in an environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM). Journal of Materials Science, 48(14), 5055-5062.
Mortimer B, Drodge D, Siviour C & Holland C (2012) SHOOTING SILK: STRESS STRAIN PROPERTIES OF SINGLE FIBRES AT HIGH RATE. Journal of Biomechanics, 45, s86.
Drodge DR, Mortimer B, Siviour CR & Holland C (2012) Dynamic behaviour of silks: Nature's precision nanocomposites. EPJ Web of Conferences, 26.
Holland C, Urbach JS & Blair DL (2012) Direct visualization of shear dependent silk fibrillogenesis. Soft Matter, 8(9), 2590-2594.
Holland C, O'Neil K, Vollrath F & Dicko C (2012) Distinct structural and optical regimes in natural silk spinning. Biopolymers, 97(6), 368-373.
Holland C, Porter D & Vollrath F (2012) Comparing the rheology of mulberry and "wild" silkworm spinning dopes. Biopolymers, 97(6), 362-367.
Chaudhury S, Holland C, Thompson MS, Vollrath F & Carr AJ (2012) Tensile and shear mechanical properties of rotator cuff repair patches. Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery, 21(9), 1168-1176.
Drodge DR, Mortimer B, Holland C & Siviour CR (2012) Ballistic impact to access the high-rate behaviour of individual silk fibres. Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 60(10), 1710-1721.
Holland C, Vollrath F, Ryan AJ & Mykhaylyk OO (2012) Silk and synthetic polymers: Reconciling 100 degrees of separation. Advanced Materials, 24(1), 105-109.
Kingdon J, Agwanda B, Kinnaird M, O'Brien T, Holland C, Gheysens T, Boulet-Audet M & Vollrath F (2012) A poisonous surprise under the coat of the African crested rat. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 279(1729), 675-680.
Boulet-Audet M & Holland C (2011) The African crested rat's poisonous hairs studied by attenuated total reflection infrared spectroscopy. Spectroscopy Europe, 23(6), 10-12.
Chaudhury S, Holland C, Vollrath F & Carr AJ (2011) Comparing normal and torn rotator cuff tendons using dynamic shear analysis. Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery - Series B, 93 B(7), 942-948.
Vollrath F, Porter D & Holland C (2011) There are many more lessons still to be learned from spider silks. SOFT MATTER, 7(20), 9595-9600.
Boulet-Audet M, Vollrath F & Holland C (2011) Rheo-attenuated total reflectance infrared spectroscopy: A new tool to study biopolymers. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 13(9), 3979-3984.
Chaudhury S, Holland C, Porter D, Tirlapur UK, Vollrath F & Carr AJ (2011) Torn human rotator cuff tendons have reduced collagen thermal properties on differential scanning calorimetry. Journal of Orthopaedic Research, 29(12), 1938-1943.
Chaudhury S, Holland C, Vollrath F & Carr A (2010) Characterisation of differences in shear mechanical properties between torn and normal rotator cuff tendons. Injury Extra, 41(12), 162-162.
Chaudhury S, Holland C, Vollrath F & Carr AJ (2010) Shear mechanical properties of repair grafts—how well do they match normal and torn human rotator cuff tendons?. Injury Extra, 41(12), 161-162.
Holland C (2009) Eight legs good!. TCE(815), 24-26.
Mo C, Holland C, Porter D, Shao Z & Vollrath F (2009) Concentration state dependence of the rheological and structural properties of reconstituted silk. Biomacromolecules, 10(10), 2724-2728.
Holland C, Terry AE, Porter D & Vollrath F (2007) Natural and unnatural silks. Polymer, 48(12), 3388-3392.
Holland C, Terry AE, Porter D & Vollrath F (2006) Comparing the rheology of native spider and silkworm spinning dope. Nature Materials, 5(11), 870-874.
Ghosh D, Coulter SM, Laverty G, Holland C, Doutch JJ, Vassalli M & Adams DJ () Metal Cross-Linked Supramolecular Gel Noodles: Structural Insights and Antibacterial Assessment. Biomacromolecules.
Barajas-Ledesma E & Holland C () Probing the compositional and rheological properties of gastropod locomotive mucus. Frontiers in Soft Matter, 3, 1201511.
Giubertoni G, Caporaletti F, Roeters SJ, Chatterley AS, Weidner T, Laity P, Holland C & Woutersen S () In Situ Identification of Secondary Structures in Unpurified Bombyx mori Silk Fibrils Using Polarized Two-Dimensional Infrared Spectroscopy. Biomacromolecules.
Zhang YH, Plaut AS, Weis J, Harbison JP, Florez LT, Holland MC & Stanley CR () Ground-state transition in few-electron quantum dots observed by magnetophotoluminescence. Physical Review B, 68(7).

Chapters

Holland C (2024) Historical silk biomaterials, Silk-Based Biomaterials for Tissue Engineering, Regenerative and Precision Medicine (pp. 3-8). Elsevier
Holland C (2018) Bio-Inspired Design – Enhancing Natural Materials, Designing with Natural Materials (pp. 321-334). CRC Press
Mortimer B & Holland C (2015) The use of spider silk as a biomaterial, Advances in Silk Science and Technology (pp. 233-260).
Woods A & Holland C (2015) Biomechanical testing and the development of silk-based textiles for regenerative medicine and surgery, Biomedical Textiles for Orthopaedic and Surgical Applications: Fundamentals, Applications and Tissue Engineering (pp. 1-22).
Woods A & Holland C (2015) Biomechanical testing and the development of silk-based textiles for regenerative medicine and surgery, Biomedical Textiles for Orthopaedic and Surgical Applications (pp. 1-22). Elsevier
Mortimer B & Holland C (2015) The use of spider silk as a biomaterial, Advances in Silk Science and Technology (pp. 233-260). Elsevier
Abbott A, Ellison M, Teulé F, Lewis RV, Marcotte WR, Abbott AG, Harcum SW, Teulé F, Holland C, Vollrath F , Santulli C et al (2008) Contributor contact details, Biologically Inspired Textiles (pp. xi-xii). Elsevier
Holland C & Vollrath F (2008) Biomimetic principles of spider silk for high performance fibres In Ellison MS & Abbott AG (Ed.), Biologically Inspired Textiles Cambridge, UK: Woodhead Publishing.

Conference proceedings papers

Amendola A, Sigh N, Rodenburg C, Holland C & Fraternali F (2021) A mesoscale tensegrity model of spider dragline silk fiber. COMPDYN Proceedings, Vol. 2021-June
White B, Laity P, Holland C, Six K, Trummer G & Lewis R (2018) Iron oxide and water paste rheology and its effect on low adhesion in the wheel/rail interface. Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Contact Mechanics and Wear of Rail/wheel Systems, CM 2018 (pp 1084-1089)
Hamad SF, Stehling N, Holland C, Foreman JP & Rodenburg C (2017) Low-Voltage SEM of Natural Plant Fibers: Microstructure Properties (Surface and Cross-Section) and their Link to the Tensile Properties. Procedia Engineering, Vol. 200 (pp 295-302) View this article in WRRO
Holland C & Woods A (2015) Turning a Silk Purse into a Sow's Ear: The Importance of Processing When using Silk in Regenerative Medicine. TISSUE ENGINEERING PART A, Vol. 21 (pp S65-S65)
Brif A, Holland C & Claeyssens F (2015) Light-based Bioprinting of Native Silk. TISSUE ENGINEERING PART A, Vol. 21 (pp S339-S339)
Mortimer B, Siviour CR, Holland C & Vollrath F (2014) Multipurpose spider silks: the implications of web impact on vibration signalling. INTEGRATIVE AND COMPARATIVE BIOLOGY, Vol. 54 (pp E147-E147)

Patents

Holland C, Shimanovich U, Vollrath F & Knowles TPJ (2014) A method for Microfluidic processing of native silk into microgels for long-term storage of aggregation sensitive molecules. Appl. 02 Apr 2014.
Holland C, Carter R, Scott L & Vollrath F (2012) Non-woven silk materials and methods for manufacture thereof. WO 2012172085 Appl. 30 Mar 2012.
Holland C, Knight DK, Skaer N, Gheysens T & Collins A (2008) Cartilage repair material and a method for the preparation thereof. GB0807868.5 (UK). Appl. 30 Apr 2008.