Her joint appointments reflect her interdisciplinary research, which combines chemistry and biology to discover, characterize, and deliver novel peptides from venomous marine snails as tools for manipulating cellular physiology in pain and cancer. She is a World Economic Forum New Champion Young Scientist, as well as the recipient of the prestigious Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award and an NSF CAREER Award. Holford is active in science education, advancing public understanding of science, and science diplomacy. She cofounded several initiatives, including KillerSnails.com, an award-winning learning-games company that uses extreme creatures as a conduit to advance scientific teaching and learning, and RAISEW.org, an NSF project to increase women’s involvement in science.