Tahitanga Health Centre

Holly D'Souza Background

     Holly achieved her education at San Francisco State.  She trained in the laboratory at Stanford Hospital, eventually specialising in virus identification. With the rise of HIV, she learned PCR, both for diagnosis and for donor/transplant screening. Holly also worked in biotech, including running a diagnostic laboratory for HIV drug susceptibility. She later returned to Stanford in the role of education coordinator in microbiology, guiding the laboratory training of physicians and scientists. After coming to New Zealand, she became section head of the Virology lab at Auckland Hospital. Nelson offered few medical opportunities, so Holly became an algae taxonomist for 10 years at Cawthron Institute. When Covid-19 came to Nelson, Holly utilized her skills in Nelson Hospital. For the past 2 years, she has been doing next-generation gene sequencing of environmental samples.

      Holly has been a key component in all you see so far.  She has donated so much of her time and wisdom to help this project continue forward.  Without her input, we would not have succeeded.  She is brilliant with a heart of gold and a passion in keeping the integrity of science and a curiosity that is infectious (no pun intended)!