John Hollander serves as the E.J. Van Liere Medicine Chair at the WVU School of Medicine. (Sean McNamara/WVU photo)
As the E.J. Van Liere Medicine Chair at the West Virginia University School of Medicine, John Hollander is building upon a legacy of excellence in medical education to improve health in West Virginia and beyond.
Private support strengthens his work to lead and expand the Department of Physiology, Pharmacology and Toxicology.
“Having this endowed professorship has afforded me the opportunity to leverage some of the things that come with it to build the department, grow it, and have it be part of the larger growth that we’re having here at WVU,” Hollander said. “The key thing is really infrastructure. I think we get better as a group when the things around us and the people around us are strengthened. The goal is to leverage those resources to make us better individually and cooperatively.”
Hollander has held the E.J. Van Liere endowed professorship since he was appointed as department chair in December 2025.
The professorship is named for Dr. Edward J. Van Liere, who served as WVU School of Medicine dean for 25 years and a faculty member for 45 years. Van Liere provided critical leadership during a challenging time in the School’s history, overseeing the establishment of an academic medical center and transition to a four-year MD program in 1960.
Van Liere’s former students, colleagues and friends established the professorship in his honor in 1976, about three years before he died at the age of 84.
“Dr. Hollander’s research bridges high-caliber laboratory innovation with the vital goal of extending lifespan and healthspan,” Dr. Clay Marsh, chancellor and executive dean for WVU Health Sciences, said. “As the foundational chair of our physiology department, long-serving dean of the School of Medicine, and 'Father of the Health Sciences Center,' Dr. Van Liere championed the belief that robust research is essential to the medical institution and communities we serve. Ultimately, this support carries his vision forward — transforming patient care and building a healthier, more resilient future for West Virginia and beyond.”
Hollander first joined the WVU School of Medicine faculty in 2005. He said the University was a good match because it offered unique access to patients that wouldn’t be available elsewhere.
“I really have over the years enjoyed feeling as though our research can have an impact on the citizens of our state,” Hollander said. “As the largest hospital and health science center in the state, there are a lot of opportunities for us to have an impact on the local population and their health.”
A native of Los Angeles, Hollander was always interested in science. His focus shifted to biomedical research after his dad died of cancer while he was in college.
Hollander completed his bachelor’s degree at the University of California San Diego and earned a doctorate in nutritional sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He then returned to UC San Diego for a postdoctoral fellowship that engaged him in diabetes research.
West Virginia has the nation’s highest rate of diabetes, and Hollander’s research primarily focuses on the diabetic heart. In 2023, he received a $2 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute for a four-year study that traces the cause of heart disease in people with Type 2 diabetes.
The Community Foundation for the Ohio Valley, based in Wheeling, has also generously and continuously supported Hollander’s work via the Whipkey Charitable Fund, which benefits diabetes research.
“We are an institution that should have a strong footprint in the diabetic research area,” Hollander said. “When you have the population we have, that struggles with the effects of diabetes, there are expectations from the state to serve our local population, I think it’s incumbent on us to think about doing research that’s going to benefit them.”
He said the Department’s greatest research strengths are in metabolic disease and environmental toxicology. With support from the professorship, Hollander is working to elevate and add faculty, build research resources, and expand physical infrastructure in partnership with WVU Health Sciences leadership.
Hollander is also working to strengthen cross-disciplinary collaborations with the WVU Heart & Vascular Institute, WVU Cancer Institute, and the Department of Medicine to advance new treatments. He said bench science and clinical research go hand in hand to better people’s health.
“I can’t tell you how excited and grateful I am for this opportunity,” Hollander said. “It’s giving me the opportunity to really build something, to move a department forward, and to be part of an institution that’s trying to move forward. And I really think without the endowed professorship, it would make it much more difficult.”
The Van Liere professorship was established through the WVU Foundation, the nonprofit organization that receives and administers private donations on behalf of the University and its affiliated entities.