WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Ross Holmes, Ph.D., a researcher in the Department of Urology at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, has received the highest honorary title, Doctor Honoris Causa, from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. He received the award at an International Symposium on Cell Biology.
Holmes was nominated for the honor by Gheorghe Benga, Ph.D., head of the university’s Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, which sponsored the symposium. The award as based on Holmes’ research, including a collaboration with Benga that resulted in discovery of a protein that moves water in and out of cells.
Previous recipients of the honorary degree include two Nobel laureates. Holmes, a graduate of the University of Queensland, Australia, earned his doctoral degree from the Australian National University. His research focuses on how kidney stones are formed with the goal of finding better ways to prevent and treat the condition. Holmes and colleagues at Wake Forest Baptist were the first to show the connection between ingestion of a substance known as oxalate, found in many plants, and kidney stone formation.
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