The Baird/Holowka laboratory employs a broad range of biochemical, biophysical, and imaging methods to investigate the structure and molecular mechanisms of cell surface receptors in the immune response.  Biophysical and cell biological studies are carried out in conjunction with measurements of cellular activities so as to determine what features are critical for the initiation and regulation of signal transduction.  Current studies focus mainly on two receptor systems - the mast cell surface receptor, FcεRI, and the receptor for epidermal growth factor that operate in immunological and cell proliferation responses.  The goal of these integrated studies is to understand complex biological systems on a molecular level.

After earning his PhD in chemistry with Renata Cathou at Tufts University School of Medicine in 1975 David Holowka became a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University with Gordon Hammes and then at the NIH with Henry Metzger.  He returned to Cornell in 1980 and is currently a Senior Scientist there.   Dr Holowka has been an editor on a number of journals including Molecular Immunology and PLoS One, and has received awards and fellowships from the Arthritis Foundation, the NIH, and the Charlton Foundation.